


I Swear to Burn Brightly

by Nitroglycerific



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alpha Kaname Madoka, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Burglary, Community: a_b_o_ladies, Drug Use, F/F, Femslash, Futanari, Knotting, Mercy Killing, Omega Akemi Homura, Omega Verse, Pheromones, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Puella Magi Madoka Magica AU, Time Travelling Lesbians, Timelines, Trans Character, Transitioning, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-02-26 07:02:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 40,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2642588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitroglycerific/pseuds/Nitroglycerific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Homura is a timid, fresh-faced omega trying to get back into the flow of things after six months in the hospital. She quickly befriends sweet, kindly alpha Madoka, and the two forge a romance together. However, once things start going to hell, Homura begins to realize she is not comfortable living as an omega, and vows to protect Madoka from harm as an alpha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's Such A Cool Name, No Matter What!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [This Fragrant Skin, This Hair Like Lace](https://archiveofourown.org/works/561869) by [ErinPtah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinPtah/pseuds/ErinPtah). 



> This is an aged-up [the students are 17+] omegaverse re-telling of Madoka Magica starting with the events of episode 10 in the original series. My version of omegaverse is a very loose interpretation. There's a lot I find problematic about A/O universes, but also a lot I find deeply empowering and enlightening. That in mind, this fic is a self-serving re-invention of omegaverse, with all the parts I like, and none of the parts I don't.
> 
> In this universe:  
> -Alpha girls are basically futas; omega boys have the same junk as alpha girls, minus breasts  
> -All penises knot  
> -Omegas of both sexes can get pregnant, but so can alpha girls  
> -Alphas exude pheromones when aroused that drive omegas into a heat that magnifies existing attractions.  
> -Alpha pheromones also instill the alpha that released them with a sense of longing, protectiveness, and sometimes even possession towards their object of desire.  
> -Pheromones in public are a major faux pas, like erections  
> -Teenage alphas sometimes have a hard time controlling their pheromones, like how teenage boys get random boners  
> -Alphas and omegas are considered equals according to the law, but it's recent equality, with a lengthy history of mistreatment towards omegas before that  
> -Rape is rape, according to the law. Positive consent laws require alphas to get verbal consent from omegas before releasing pheromones to have sex with them.
> 
> Cast List  
> Kaname Madoka - Alpha Female  
> Akemi Homura - Omega Female  
> Tome Mami - Omega Female  
> Miki Sayaka - Alpha Female  
> Saotome Kazuko - Omega Female  
> Kaname Junko - Alpha Female  
> Kaname Tomohisa - Omega Male  
> Kaname Tatsuya - Alpha Male  
> Kamijo Kyosuke - Alpha Male

Akemi Homura shuffled nervously down the halls at Mitakihara High School. It had been six months since she had last walked these halls. It was nice to have a change of scenery from the cardio wing of the hospital, although everything looked exactly the same around here as when she left. It gave her a sense of nostalgia and tragedy. Naturally, the world had kept moving without her. Had she never come back, would the world have even noticed?

She glanced from one room to the next, looking for the room number on her class assignment. When she finally found the room, she hesitated outside the door a moment to take a deep breath and collect herself. Before she could enter, however, she was greeted by furious screaming from inside the room. What was going on? 

“Exactly! They can be fried either way,” exclaimed the teacher, addressing the entire class. “And it should go without saying that judging an omega’s attractiveness by the way she fries her eggs is the gravest of mistakes!” she yelled as she snapped her pointer in rage. The classroom could only sit dumbstruck. Homura shrank back, terrified to interrupt her teacher’s fury.

“Now, my dear omegas, I want you to remember that you must never date an alpha who is so petty as to insist that they can’t eat fried eggs done over hard! And alphas!” she continued, “You better not grow up to be so petty as to fuss over how your eggs are done, okay?”

Roughly half the boys and half the girls in the classroom nodded feverishly, visibly frightened of their livid omega teacher.

As quickly as her tirade began, though, she reverted to a bright, sunny attitude. She glanced out into the halls, noticing Homura standing sheepishly outside the door. “Well then! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s welcome our new transfer student! Come on in, Akemi-san.”

The class quietly breathed a sigh of relief at the end of their teacher’s rant before gasping as Homura entered the room. Her hair was tremendously long, even with it braided all the way down her back. She walked with clumsy awkwardness and kept her eyes fixed on the floor a couple feet in front of her. All the same, she felt every eye in the class focusing on her.

“Please, introduce yourself,” the teacher chimed.

“U-um, my name is A-Akemi Homura,” she mumbled, fidgeting constantly with her bag strap, “P-pleased to meet you.”

"Akemi-san has been in the hospital for a while with a heart condition. I hope you'll all help make her feel welcome!"

Introductions went smoothly enough, but as soon as class was dismissed for morning break, her classmates (mostly alpha girls) overwhelmed her with attention. She understood they were just trying to be welcoming and amiable, but the little introvert had felt socially drained before she even entered the classroom.

Fortunately, her rescue soon came in the form of a girl slightly tinier than herself. She had brilliant pink hair that she wore up in two pigtails with red ribbons. Homura couldn’t help feeling awestruck at the girl’s beauty.

“Akemi-san? You have to go to the nurse’s office, don’t you? Do you know where it is?”

“Huh? Um, n-no…”

“Then I’ll go ahead and take you there. I’m the nurse’s aid in our class.” Looking around to the alpha girls surrounding Homura, she apologized, “Sorry everyone, but Akemi-san needs to take her medicine during morning break. There’ll be time to get to know her later.”

The girls all nodded. “Oh, really?” “Sorry to keep you!” “Go on, then!” One girl patted Homura on the shoulder, startling her a little.

Homura stood up and bowed profusely before following the pink-haired girl down the hall.

“Sorry about that. The other alphas don’t mean any harm. They just got excited because we don’t get many transfer students. Especially not ones that are so cute.”

Homura blushed furiously. “No, it’s… thank you. Very much.” This sweet girl, even smaller than her, was an alpha? Not that that was impossible, of course. Just... unexpected.

“You don’t have to be so nervous. We’re classmates after all. I’m Kaname Madoka, but you can just call me Madoka.”

“R-really? B-but…”

“It’s fine! Really! So is it okay if I call you Homura?” The whole time she had been talking with Homura, Madoka’s face was lit up with a serenely warm smile. Homura felt safe with her, safe enough to perhaps be candid with Madoka.

“I-… I don’t get called by my first name very much. After all, it’s kind of a weird name…”

“Eh? No it’s not! It means ‘flame,’ so it’s like you’re supposed to flare up passionately!”

“I- I don’t really live up to my name… my parents wanted an alpha…”

Madoka wheeled around and clasped Homura’s hands, her encouraging smile still lighting her face. “No, it’s such a cool name, no matter what! Anyone can burn brightly. They just need to fan their flame!”

Homura was completely flustered, blushing crimson red. “Th-… thank you. Please… you can call me Homura,” she said as a timid smile began to creep across her face.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura’s time with Madoka wound up being the highlight of her day. The rest was pretty rough. She had fallen embarrassingly far behind in her studies, she exhausted herself almost immediately in gym class, and curious alphas kept bombarding her with attention whenever there was a class break.

Walking home from school that day, Homura felt immensely discouraged. She tried to cling to the empowering words that Madoka had spoken, but she couldn’t stop thinking about all the blunders she had made throughout the day. Madoka’s words quickly became distant and quiet. She couldn’t bring herself to stop looking down at the ground as she processed.

“I was useless today… I should just ask to be moved back a grade at this point. Of course, that would mean facing a whole new class all over again… and I doubt it would be any easier…”

“ _It’s hopeless._ ”

“It really is hopeless. I’ll never catch up. I can’t even make conversation. I’ll never make any friends. Although, Kaname-san…”

“ _She merely tolerates you.”_

“She probably does only tolerate me. After all, it was just her job as nurse’s aid to come talk to me…”

“ _You cause everyone trouble._ ”

“I probably bother people a lot. I can’t do anything right. I’m an embarrassment.”

“ _You’re a lost cause._ ”

“I really am a lost cause.

“ _Your heart should have given out._ ”

“It would have been easier if my heart had just given out… it really would have.”

“ _You can still make your heart stop._ ”

“Yes… I can still make my heart stop…”

“ _You should make your heart stop._ ”

“Yes… I should make my heart stop…”

 _“Kill yourself._ ”

“Yes… I should kill myse-“

Homura caught herself mid-sentence, realizing the sheer weight of the words she was uttering. She shook her head and looked up in shock to see a nightmarish scene before her. A world that looked like it had been stitched together from great works of art sprawled out before her.

“Wh-… what is this place?!”

Shambling humanoid monsters that looked like they had been sketched onto thin air appeared out of nowhere and shuffled towards her, reaching out for her neck and arms. Homura tried to run, to move, even to scream, but terror transfixed her. This was it…

Suddenly, a brilliant flash of pink light shot past her, piercing three of the monsters at once. Before Homura could even react, a long trail of brilliant yellow flew past her, gripping another group of the creatures and tightening until it tore them in half.

“That was a close one, Homura!”

Homura knew that voice. Madoka?!

Madoka appeared in front of Homura, blocking the other monsters’ path to her. She was wearing a pink, frilly outfit that matched her hair and was brandishing an enormous longbow. “C’mon, Mami-san, Let’s finish this up!”

“Yes, yes,” said a taller girl clad in yellow that strode up next to Homura, calmly pulling rifle after rifle from thin air and blasting anything that moved with fearsome precision.

Homura, terrified and amazed all at once, could barely stammer Madoka’s name.

Madoka turned back to wink at Homura. “I guess you found out our little secret. Don’t tell anyone in class, okay?”

In a few more brilliant flashes of light, the fiends advancing on her were all decimated, and the hellscape that lay before her dissipated, leaving them back on the sidewalk Homura had been walking down.

Madoka offered her hand, helping Homura to her feet. Homura couldn’t stop shaking, but Madoka’s glove was so smooth, so warm, she felt a wave of comfort wash over her. “Wh-… What are you?”

Madoka smiled proudly, looking Homura in the eyes. “We’re magical girls!”


	2. A Tightening in the Chest

“K-Kaname-san, do you… always fight those things?”

“Mm, I don’t know about always… Mami-san is the real veteran here. Honestly, I just made my contract with Kyubey last week.” Madoka patted the smiling white creature perched on her shoulder.

“Still, your performance today was a tremendous improvement. You’re getting the hang of this quickly, Kaname-san.” Mami took a slow, graceful sip from her teacup, turning to Homura.

“Where to begin? Well, as Kaname-san mentioned, we’re magical girls. We’ve taken up a lifelong contract of battle through Kyubey over here. It is our sworn duty to-…”

Homura gazed down to her ornate teacup. She had not expected her first day back at school to end with her drinking tea at an upperclassman’s apartment. Then again, she hadn’t expected her new friend to save her life. _Then again_ , she hadn’t expected to be nearly killed by a phantasm on the way home from school…

“Akemi-san? Are you alright?” Mami inquired.

Homura bolted her head up. “Oh! S-Sorry, Tomoe-san!  Did you say something?”

“It’s alright. I’m sure you have plenty on your mind. Can I get you anything? Some more tea?”

Homura began to assure her she was fine, but Mami was already pouring some more deep yellow tea into her cup.

“I was just explaining what that thing you saw us fight was. We call those creatures witches. They are beings of lies, hatred, and destruction. They lead people in distress or at a difficult point in their lives to terrible fates."

_So, the witch targeted me because I’m weak… what a surprise…_

Mami took another delicate sip of tea. “Most of the unsolved murders and missing persons cases in the world are the result of a witch’s curse.”

Madoka jumped in, “It’s our duty to hunt down witches wherever they spawn. We bring hope where witches bring despair. That’s what it means to be a magical girl.”

Homura’s face brightened at the flowery description. “Th-That sounds wonderful. But… isn’t it a huge sacrifice to fight for your whole lives? Why… why did you two choose to become magical girls? Simply to stop witches?”

“No, no. That would be a bit of an unfair exchange," Kyubey interjected, "Magical girls receive something in return for their contract. In return for a pledge of battle, I grant each magical girl one wish. Any wish you can imagine, I can make it a reality.”

“Think of it as a miracle in exchange for protecting those most in danger,” Mami added.

Homura smiled and nodded.  “It really sounds wonderful. S-so… what did you wish for?”

Mami’s expression suddenly dropped and turned somber. Madoka chimed in to fill the silence. “Well, I wanted to become a magical girl to help people, but I couldn’t decide on a wish. So Mami-san challenged me to decide on a wish before she dispatched the witch we were tracking, or else I’d wish on a fabulous chocolate cake! It was close, but I decided at the last second to wish for a beautiful meteor shower that I could share with my friends.”

Mami smiled weakly. “It truly was beautiful, Kaname-san. I-… my wish was less a matter of choice and more of necessity. My options were rather limited. I’m just happy to be here at all, and it’s even better now that I have friends like Kaname-san to fight alongside.”

Madoka giggled and nudged against Mami’s shoulder affectionately. Homura suddenly felt a tightening in her chest. She’d have thought it was her heart acting up, but this was a pain she’d never felt before.

“You’re making great strides already, Kaname-san. I just want to make sure you’re properly trained and prepared for whenever Walpurgisnacht descends. But that’s enough for today. I don’t want to overwhelm you, Akemi-san.”

Homura snapped to attention. “O-oh no! I’m fine, really. I just want to thank you again for saving me.”

Mami shook her head, smiling. “No, no. That’s just what it means to be a magical girl.”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Madoka and Homura left Mami’s apartment together. Their paths aligned for part of the walk to their homes, much to Homura’s delight. She started walking side-by-side with Madoka, but slowly drifted behind. Her mind kept flashing back to the image of Madoka nudging Mami’s arm. She bit her bottom lip. The tight feeling in her chest started coming back. Madoka seemed like she was only friends with Mami, but… she couldn’t be sure.

“Homura-chan? Is everything okay?”

“Oh! S-sorry, Kaname-san. I’m… Well, how long have you… known Tomoe-san?”

“Mm, only about a month. Mami-san saved me from a witch, just like you. After that, I followed her around on a few witch hunts before making my contract with Kyubey.”

So… they didn’t sound too close. What a relief. Wait, Madoka had also been targeted by a witch? But what was she distressed about to attract a witch? She seemed so strong, so confident…

“Well, my house is this way. It was great talking with you, Homura-chan. Have a good night!”

Madoka wrapped her arms around Homura and gave her a big hug.  Homura gasped, and her face turned beet-red. Her fingertips tingled as she gingerly laid her hands on Madoka’s waist. “You too, K-Kaname-san.”

Madoka waved goodbye as she walked away. Homura fidgeted in place for a few seconds before her nerves overpowered her nervousness, and she ran after Madoka.

“Kaname-san! Would… would you like to hang out sometime this weekend?”

Madoka’s face lit up as she clasped Homura’s hands, “That sounds great! Do you have a cell phone? Here’s my number. I’ll message you tonight and we can decide where to go!” Homura’s blush became all the more furious, but she smiled and nodded.

 “Mami-san and I eat lunch together on the roof every day with my friend, Sayaka. Would you like to join us?”

Another friend of Madoka’s… and this one was already on a first-name-only basis. Homura clutched at her chest.

“I-… I’d love to.”

“Great!” Madoka beamed at Homura. She bid Homura a good night again and turned away. Homura kept turning back to watch Madoka until she rounded the corner, then began walking home herself.

“This isn’t a date. This isn’t a date. I never called it a date. She doesn’t think it’s a date. This isn’t a date.”


	3. Less Than Three

Homura sat alone in her apartment, struggling with her math homework. After spending so long in the hospital, she was stuck having to refer to the back of the book for formulae that she learned years ago.

_Why am I even bothering with this? I almost died today. Don’t people normally… reevaluate their lives or have an existential crisis or something when they almost die?_

However, she knew well enough that she had a reason to persist with her homework. She had a reason to continue attending Mitakihara High. She would not allow herself to be knocked back down a grade and separated from Madoka.

Easier said than done. The problems only became more challenging the more she did, and her mind kept flashing back to the witch, the magical girls, and most of all, Madoka.  

Homura found herself mulling over one of the last problems on the page when her cell phone vibrated, causing a loud buzz against the hardwood desk. She leapt halfway out of her seat in surprise before noticing the name “Kaname Madoka” underneath the envelope icon on her phone.

“She really did message me!” Homura excitedly flipped her phone open.

> “Hi, Homura-chan! How’s ur homework coming? Reading about things u aren’t really interested in can be such a drag! :P
> 
> Anyway, have u thought of any ideas 4 where u want 2 hang out this weekend? :)
> 
> Madoka” 

Homura read the message thrice over to assure herself it wasn’t an uncannily-worded glitch before typing a response.

> “I’m so glad you messaged, Kaname-san. I knocked out the reading early because I knew I’d have more trouble with the math. Guess I’ve been away from these types of problems for too long.
> 
> I really haven’t thought of any good ideas for this weekend. All I can think of are generic places like the movies, a park, or a bookstore. Sorry I’m not more helpful… do you have any ideas?
> 
> Akemi Homura”

Homura barely got back into struggling with her homework before her phone buzzed again.

> “Aww! The math problems aren’t so bad once u get the hang of them. We should go over our answers together in the morning. We could even study together, if u want. :D
> 
> All of those ideas are great! U really don’t have 2 put urself down, Homura-chan. All I thought of was this amusement park I used 2 go 2 back in middle school. Ofc, I don’t wanna put xtra strain on your heart, so that’s probs a bad idea.
> 
> Madoka” 

Homura had never been to an amusement park because of her heart. However, now that she was much more stable, the idea appealed to her, even though she had no idea what to expect.

> “I really appreciate the offer, Kaname-san. I’d love to study with you. I’d also love to go to the amusement park. I just can’t go on any thrill rides. When should we go?
> 
> Akemi Homura”

Homura didn’t even put the phone down to pretend to be invested in her math. She waited eagerly for Madoka’s response.

> “As long as ur sure u’ll be okay, great! Let’s go Sunday. The lines should be smaller.”
> 
> “Sunday it is. I can’t wait.”
> 
> “Me either! But I think I g2g 4 now. I’ll never get this reading done otherwise. ^^;”
> 
> “That’s fine. Good night, Kaname-san.”
> 
> “Night, Homura-chan! Sweet dreams! <3”

Homura stared at the heart emote in the last text for at least five solid minutes. _It’s just an emoticon. A “less than” symbol and a three. That’s all._ And yet, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Homura hurriedly slogged through her last few problems with fleeting concentration, and dove into bed a few minutes before midnight. She kept opening up the text and eyeing the heart.

She drifted to sleep clutching her phone.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura woke up the next morning better rested than most of her time in the hospital. She felt like she should have had some nightmares after being attacked yesterday, but she felt too good. She could barely think about anything besides the amusement park, let alone wait for the week to get over with.

However, her exuberance crashed when she walked into class and saw Madoka laughing and talking with a rather tall girl with short blue hair. Madoka’s words from yesterday rang in her ears.

“ _Mami-san and I eat lunch together on the roof every day with my friend, Sayaka._ ”

Homura’s heart felt like it was being crushed in a vise. She didn’t want to face the possibility of realizing she had had no shot with Madoka to begin with.

However, as soon as Homura crossed the threshold, Madoka noticed and ran over to greet her.  “Homura-chan! Good morning. I want you to meet my friend, Sayaka.”

She led Homura by the hand over to the blue-haired girl. “Homura-chan, this is Miki Sayaka. She’s been my friend since second grade.”

_Childhood friends? Well, I guess that’s good…_

“Sayaka, this is my friend, Homura-chan.”

Sayaka smirked and teasingly punched Madoka in the shoulder. “Yeah, I know, Madoka. I was there for her introduction too!” She turned to Homura and waved. “Hey, new kid. Nice to meet’cha. Looks like Madoka’s taken a liking to you.”

Homura blushed, realizing that only twenty-four hours earlier, she hadn’t known anyone in this classroom. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“W-well, I guess. Kaname-san has been really kind so far.”

Sayaka smirked. “Ohh? Kind? My my, Madoka. You were _kind_ to her? Next thing you know, you’ll be _generous_ or even- dare I say it- _friendly!_ ”

Madoka giggled awkwardly. Homura fidgeted in place. _Of course Kaname-san is kind. Of course Miki-san has known that for ages. I have no idea what to say that she wouldn’t already know. I’m just embarrassing myself._

Madoka looked from Sayaka to Homura as she replied. “Homura-chan is really cool! She’s got amazing hair, she’s so nice, and she’s keeping up with classes after being out of school so long. She’s super smart!”

Homura blushed at Madoka’s glowing review. Sayaka grinned and leaned in toward Madoka, “Ehhh? Sounds like someone’s crushing on the new girl~” Homura and Madoka’s faces exploded with vermillion. They started stammering incoherently until the bell rang a few seconds later, and class began.

Homura’s feverish blush persisted all morning. From time to time, she glanced at Madoka. Her face was as pink as her hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot tell y'all how much I had to fight with myself to not name this chapter "Saved by the Bell."


	4. Don't Blow It Again

As Homura fell into a daily routine at school, the week started drifting by quicker. She made small talk in-between classes with Sayaka and Madoka, and joined them on the roof to eat lunches with Mami. Sayaka and Mami didn't talk to each other much.

Homura rarely got time to chat alone with Madoka. Sayaka joined them on walks home from school each day that week, but on Wednesday and Friday, Madoka parted ways with them first.

“Where you off to this time?” Sayaka frowned.

Madoka looked sheepish, “Picking up groceries for dinner.”

“Kaname-san… is it a wi-,“ Homura blurted out before catching herself.

Sayaka pressed further, “A what?”

Madoka fidgeted in place, avoiding eye contact. “A… waffle night! Yep. We’re doing breakfast for dinner tonight.”

“This has something to do with that blonde omega we’re suddenly eating lunch with on the roof, doesn’t it?”

“What? N-no! I mean-...”

Sayaka nodded grumpily. “Uh-huh. Well, have fun with your waffles.”

Madoka bid both of them a good night, giving each a big hug. Sayaka and Homura were left awkwardly milling about on the sidewalk.

Sayaka pouted and looked towards the sky. “You know something about what’s going on.”

“I-… n-no,” Homura stammered.

“I’ve known her almost my entire life, but I have no idea what she’s been thinking these past couple weeks. And now you two are super close after only a few days.”

Homura stammered for an explanation. “I-uh, well, that is…”

Sayaka sighed. “Whatever. She’ll tell me when she’s ready. I’m not about to harass you for an answer… I just hope you realize how lucky you are to have her trust you so much. Don’t blow it again.”

Sayaka patted Homura on the shoulder, then slunk off in a different direction than her. Homura almost called out to Sayaka, but her voice lumped up in her throat.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura tried to text Madoka every night, but Madoka often had to excuse herself to track down a witch or a familiar with Mami. In those moments, Homura was left alone in her apartment with the knowledge of an entire shadow world of strife and combat that Madoka willingly threw herself into.

On Friday night, after her confrontation with Sayaka, Homura couldn’t stop beating herself up.

_I should be helping her. I may not be strong, but I could do… something. Anything. The least I could do for being entrusted with knowledge of the witches is help her. I owe Miki-san that much…_

She began to type a message to Madoka.

> “Kaname-san, do you want me to be a magical girl?”

Homura stared at the message. She hovered her fingertip over the "Send" button. Eventually, however, she backspaced and deleted the message. She just sat alone in the crippling silence, waiting for any indication that Madoka was still alive.

Finally, as Homura was drifting into an uneasy sleep, her phone buzzed in her hand. She flipped it open apprehensively.

> “All done 2nite! Sry about earlier, Homura-chan! I really need 2 tell Sayaka about the witches, but I’m not sure how. Are we still okay 4 the amusement park Sunday?
> 
> Madoka”

Homura clutched the phone to her heart. Tears welled up in her eyes.

> “Could we perhaps move the amusement park to Saturday? I know the lines will be a bit longer but…”

She needed an excuse. She flipped open a weather website to check the forecast.

> “… but there’s going to be a higher chance of rain on Sunday, so it’s probably a better idea to go Saturday.
> 
> Akemi Homura”

Homura sprawled out on her bed, stomach facing down.

_I have to tell her. I have to confess. No… that would be the most selfish thing I could do. “Oh, Madoka! Thanks so much for risking your life for me every day. By the way, that’s not enough. I want your body, too.” Ugh. Do I have any shame?_

She was yanked out of her reverie by her hand buzzing.

> “Saturday sounds gr8! Guess we should have checked the weather b4 picking a day. ^^;
> 
> Need me 2 pick u up, or should we meet there?
> 
> Madoka”

Homura smiled weakly. At least she was now only one night away from seeing Madoka…

> “I can take the bus over. I don’t want to be a burden.”

Almost immediately after sending the message, her phone vibrated again.

> “Ur never a burden, Homura-chan! We’ll come get u around 11:00, k?”

She blushed, gripping her pillow tight.

> “Thank you. That would be just fine. Have a good night, Kaname-san.”
> 
> “Night, Homura-chan! <3”

Homura lay in bed rehearsing her lines until she crashed into a dreamless sleep around 2:00 AM.


	5. Like-Like

Homura woke up groggy and sluggish. She felt exhausted before she even got out of bed. Rolling over, she fumbled for her glasses on the nightstand and checked her clock.

“What?! 10:13?! Crap!” She scrambled out of bed, rushing to the shower.

_No, wait! If I shower now, my hair won’t be dry in time to braid it._

She lifted her armpit and took a whiff. Just enough to be unable to get away with.

_Fine. Whatever. No braids today. I just have to hurry!_

Homura showered as fast as she could, but with hair that reached down to her hips, it still took about twenty minutes. She threw on a pastel purple blouse and some dark blue jeans. She shoved a blackberry bagel in her mouth and dried her hair as best as she could. However, by the time the she heard knocking at the door, her hair was still slightly damp.

“C-coming!”

She hurriedly donned a deep purple hair band as her loose hair bounced up and down behind her. She threw the door open to a heavenly sight: Madoka wearing a bright yellow sundress, her hair tied up with matching ribbons, and pristine white flats on her feet.

“Morning, Homura-chan!”

Homura fumbled with her words before collecting herself. “Good morning, Kaname-san.”

“Ready to go?”

“I just need one more moment, if you don’t mind.”

She scurried through the living room, grabbing necessary items and shoving them in her purse. When she was done, she was already out of breath.

Madoka rested her hands on Homura’s shoulders. “Oh, Homura-chan. You don’t need to hurry. We have all day.”

So-… Sorry… Kana… me-san,” Homura panted. She adjusted her glasses and caught her breath.

Madoka gently led Homura by the hand to her mother’s car. “By the way, Homura-chan. I really like your hair like this. It’s so cool!”

“R-really?” Homura blushed as she opened the car door.

“Ohh, so this is the new girl you’ve been so excited about, eh, Madoka?”

“M-Mama!” implored a flustered Madoka. She shuffled Homura into the car, trying to conceal her blush.

_Excited? What for? I’m really nothing special…_

“Sorry, honey. It’s a mother’s job to embarrass her children.”

She smiled at Homura in the rear-view mirror and waved to her as she got settled in the back seat.

“Nice to meet you, Akemi-san. Kaname Junko.”

“O-oh no, Kaname-san. The pleasure’s all mine.”

Junko turned to Madoka and gave a flippant salute. “Alright! Where to, boss?”

“Wacky World, mom…” grumbled Madoka as she buried her beet-red face in her hands.

“Wacky World it is, boss!”

“Mama!”

Junko giggled as she took off down the street.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

The car ride helped disarm Homura’s anxiety and stress. Madoka was profoundly embarrassed by her mother’s antics, but Homura marveled at the tangible love between the two of them.

After thirty minutes, the girls were disembarking in front of Wacky World.  
  
“You want me to circle around till you’re ready, boss?” chimed Junko from the car.

“Mama, please no…” groaned Madoka. “We’ll call you when we’re ready to be picked up.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Junko faux-saluted again before peeling away from the sidewalk, laughing hysterically.

Madoka buried her face in her hands again, her face crimson up to the tips of her ears. “I am so, so sorry for that. My mom’s... well, my mom.”

Homura smiled, holding onto her purse strap. “I thought it was really sweet, Kaname-san. She clearly loves you a lot.”

Madoka shook her head back and forth in her hands. “I know, but… couldn’t she love me in a way that isn’t completely humiliating?”

The two shared an awkward chuckle and got in line for tickets.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Upon entering Wacky World, Madoka led Homura to all the quintessential children’s rides she’d ridden in years past. Homura enjoyed every second with Madoka, but the rides were all slow and excessively gentle.

“Hmm, these lines seem pretty short for a Saturday,” Madoka mused.

“Perhaps the forecast was enough to scare some people away today,” Homura remarked, looking around. There still seemed to be quite a few people around to her. Just how crowded was this park on a normal Saturday?

“Oh, hey! There’s the teacups. Wanna give it a try?”

“W-well…”

“It should be just fine for your heart! All you do is spin your seat around as fast or as slow as you want.”

Madoka took Homura’s hands and leapt into the line. After about ten minutes, they were sitting in an ornate pink teacup made of plaster. The ride took off, and Madoka started spinning the wheel in the middle very slowly.

Homura was nervous at first, but once she got into the swing of the ride, she grabbed the wheel and turned it faster and faster with Madoka. Homura quickly felt completely exhilarated.

The ride was over as soon as it began. The two exited dizzy and laughing.

“Haha, wow! You really got into that, Homura-chan!”

“It was so much fun! It really was! Say, let’s go on that one next!” exclaimed Homura, pointing at a roller coaster zooming by over their heads.

“Really? But-… Homura-chan…”

“I’ll be fine, really!”

“Well… there aren’t any loops…”

This time, Homura grabbed Madoka by the hand and dragged her to the line for the roller coaster.

Homura was tremendously excited at first, but the longer she stood in line, the more her adrenaline rush from the teacups wore off. She began to doubt her impulsive decision, then she began to seriously regret it. At one point, a child ahead of them broke down crying, and his parents carried the frightened little boy out of the line.

Homura began to sweat and tremble. She wanted out, but she didn’t want to trouble Madoka, especially after she’d been so emphatic about riding.

_It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. It’ll be- oh shit I’m gonna die I’m gonna die I’m gonna die!_

Her anxiety reached a fever pitch by the time she was being ushered into a seat. She kept telling herself to leap up and leave the ride, but before she knew it, the metal bar was secured over her lap, and there was no escape.

The cart jerked forward and Homura felt the weight of her body pushed against the hard back of her seat. Madoka turned to Homura, whose face had turned pale white.

“H-Homura-chan… are you okay?”

“I’m f-… f-… I’m not fine!”

Homura couldn’t take her panic anymore and threw her arms around Madoka, burying her head into Madoka’s shoulder. Madoka gasped in surprise, then began to whimper weakly.

Homura’s panic was interrupted by a peculiar scent she’d never smelled before. It was strange, and yet welcome and familiar. It smelled curiously of… Madoka?

“Woahhh! Who let it rip up front! Get a room you two!” two alphas jeered a few cars behind them.

_Wait a minute… is this… Madoka’s pheromone?_

Homura timidly peeked up to see Madoka blushing furiously, staring straight forward with tears welling in her eyes.

“M-Madoka… are you-“

The roller coaster rocketed down the hill. The pleasant sense of warmness that had been briefly swelling inside Homura dissipated as air rushed past her face. She immediately resumed panicking as her seat jerked around corners and shot up and down hills.

Halfway through, her heart began feeling tight and constricted. Homura became uncomfortably aware of her heartbeat. She clutched at her chest over her shirt. Madoka was broken out of her frozen embarrassment by Homura groaning and panting.

“H-Homura-chan! Are you okay?!”

“I… don’t know…”

“Oh no, oh no, oh no! J-just hold on, Homura-chan! We’re almost done!”

The rest of the three-minute ride felt like it took forever. As soon as they were stopped and the bar came off their laps, Madoka grabbed Homura and picked her entirely off the ground.

“Just hold on, Homura-chan! I can heal you!”

Homura’s breathing was raspy and weak.

Madoka scrambled to a bench in a remote corner of the park, laid Homura down on it, whipped out a brilliant pink stone encased in gold trim from her bag, and held it to Homura’s chest.

After a few moments of intense glowing, Homura felt… better. A lot better. Better than she’d felt in a long time. Her breathing became easier, and her heartbeat returned to a steady pace.

Homura slowly opened her eyes to Madoka sobbing above her.

“Kaname… san… ”

“I’m sorry, Homura. I’m so sorry!” Madoka blubbered through heaving sobs, “We never should have gone on that awful ride! We never should have come here! I never should have suggested this awful place!”

Homura tried feebly to comfort Madoka. “I-… it was only a few palpitations…”

“You almost died! I almost killed you! Oh, Homura…” Madoka lowered her head onto Homura’s chest and let out a muffled wail.

Homura gently placed her hands on the back of Madoka’s head. “I-It’s okay, Kaname-san… I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Ilku,” Madoka mumbled unintelligibly into Homura’s chest.

“I-I’m sorry, Kaname-san. I didn’t quite hear that.”

“I-… I like you.”

“L-like… like-like?“

“Like like-like.”

“Kaname… san.”

“’I’m sorry… saying all this out of the blue after only a week with you… and that awful blunder on the roller coaster… oh god, I’m so gross. So lecherous. Please, please just don’t hate me…”

“Kana- no. Madoka-chan, I like you too.”

Madoka bolted her head up from Homura’s chest, sniffling. “You… you what?”

Homura weakly nodded her head and smiled. “You haven’t embarrassed me once today. You’re not gross. You’re not lecherous. I like you.”

“L-like like-like?”

“Like like-like.”

“Homura… chan…” Tears dripped down Madoka’s face, but she returned Homura’s smile. She closed her eyes and moved her face towards Homura.

Their lips met, and Homura felt a surge of electricity coursing through her body. She found herself awash in the calming warmth of Madoka’s scent again.

She never wanted to leave.


	6. Intimacy

Homura and Madoka sat on the bench where they shared their first kiss. Homura kept assuring Madoka she was fine to get up and continue exploring the park, but Madoka wouldn’t hear any of it. She kept a firm grip on Homura’s hand.

“Really, Madoka-chan. I’m sure we’d be fine to go on some rides again.”

“You almost died, missy! We’re staying right here for at least half an hour. Just think of it like waiting to go swimming after eating… only instead of eating, you… almost died…” Madoka wiped a few stubborn tears from her eyes.

Homura sighed and leaned against Madoka’s shoulder. “As long as it’s with you, I suppose I’m fine with anything.”

“Wow, Homura-chan. That was really… really sappy.” The two chuckled, then sat quietly for a few moments before Homura spoke up.

 “Madoka-chan… what did-… how did you heal me, anyway? Some sort of magical girl thing?”

Madoka held up the brilliant pink stone in her hand to Homura. “It’s called a soul gem. At least, that’s what Mami-san called it. It’s the source of all my power as a magical girl. I have to keep it with me at all times, in case a witch attacks.”

“It’s beautiful… can I-… can I hold it?”

“Hm? Oh... sure!” Madoka placed her soul gem in Homura’s hands. It felt surprisingly heavy and dense. Homura traced her fingers along the gold trim. It never seemed to warm up from her body heat. Madoka shivered a bit as Homura ran her fingers over the bright pink stone in the center.

“H-here you go, Madoka-chan. Thank you.”

Madoka took her soul gem back. Her entire body shuddered, and she shook her hands as if to rid herself of the sensation. “Whoo, that was… oddly intimate. I don’t think anyone else has ever touched it before.”

Homura paused, biting her lip. “Madoka-chan… do you want me to…”

“Hm? What is it?”

“-shaved ice. Do you want me to get us some shaved ice?”

“Mmm, not for… thirteen more minutes, Homura-chan~”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

A half hour passed soon enough, and Madoka grudgingly let Homura stand up and explore the park again.

“… But you absolutely, positively can’t push yourself, Homura-chan. And no more roller coasters!”

“Ugh, no problem there. I don’t think I want to go on another roller coaster for the rest of my life.”

The two girls resumed their day at the park, riding excessively gentle rides and simply basking in each other’s company.

Soon, the park began to announce it was closing in an hour. Madoka gave her mom a call and asked if they could be picked up. There was a half-hour wait for Junko to reach the park, so the girls casually sauntered their way towards the exit.

“Say… Homura-chan. How about we go on one more ride before we leave?”

“Will we have time? Your mother will be here soon. Which ride did you have in mind, anyway?”

“Well, I thought it might be nice to finish today with _that one_.” Madoka pointed to a boat ride that went through a gigantic heart at the entrance and exit. The sign read, “Tunnel of Love.”

“W-w-w-well, I m-mean, th-th-that might be n-nice…”

Madoka smirked and the two of them sashayed into the almost nonexistent line.

“I guess most people are on their way out already.”

“I hope we make it out before your mom gets here…”

“Homura-chan, it’ll be okay! Don’t worry.”

The two hopped into a swan-shaped boat and set sail through a corny display of hearts and stars, with a full regiment of animatronic mannequins that looked like dolls pecking each other on the cheeks.

The entire length of the ride stunk ever so faintly of many an alpha before them. The thoughts of all the things that had probably happened in their seat made Homura a little queasy, but ridiculing the ride with Madoka helped her feel better.

After a minute or two, Homura leaned on Madoka’s shoulder. “I’m really glad we came here, Madoka-chan.” Madoka tenderly kissed the top of Homura’s head.

Homura turned and locked eyes with Madoka for only a second before embracing her and joining their lips together. The sappy music in the background faded into nothingness. The distant, lingering stench of dozens of alphas drifted away, and was replaced with the only scent in the world that Homura cared about: Madoka’s. Homura could feel every corner, every curve in Madoka’s lips. Her body felt warm inside and out, like she was basking in front of a fireplace. Madoka cupped her hands underneath Homura’s jaw, caressing her face. The slightest touch caused an avalanche of sensation. Every second felt like an hour.

_I want her. I want her to own me, to possess me. To rise up and overpower me. I want her to pin me down - floor, wall, whatever - and fuck me until I lose my mind. I want her to break me. I want all of it. I want all of her. I want-_

“Wah! Okay, okay!” Homura was broken out of her lustful daze by Madoka swatting at the air and shaking her head. “S-sorry, Homura-chan. I got a little… into that.”

“Oh, that’s more than alright,” said Homura as she nuzzled up to Madoka’s burning-hot chest. She began to tilt her face towards Madoka’s breasts and nosed over a perky nipple.

“Mmmm-… no, Homura! We can’t! Not here! Not like this!” Madoka pushed Homura off her and kept her at a distance by holding her shoulders. Homura was still overcome with desire, but looked away sheepishly.

“I-I’m sorry, Madoka-chan. I-… I took that too far.”

“No… it’s fine. It’s my fault anyway. You’re just acting on what I made you feel. Can’t control myself at all. Goodness knows I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to, but… well, look.”

The ride was approaching the exit. Sunset cascaded down on the last few hearts and kissing dolls in the ride. Madoka lightly smacked her cheeks a couple times to shake herself out of producing pheromones.

“I’m sorry, Homura-chan. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve never had a problem controlling myself before. I’m so disgusting.”

“No… Madoka-chan, you’re really not. I find it kinda flattering. Like… your body’s just being honest.”

“… Huh. I-… well, I guess you could take it that way. Thanks. You’re really too nice.”

Homura smiled warmly. “So are you, Madoka-chan.”

The two disembarked from the ride blushing violently and avoiding eye contact with the technician. They immediately walked to the exit and sat on a bench outside waiting for Junko to pick them up. Their hands intertwined.

“Say… Homura-chan. Would you… like to study a little at my house tomorrow?”

“I-I would love to, Madoka-chan. Wait… do we intend to actually study, or is that just the excuse we’re giving ourselves to be alone in a room together?”

Madoka blushed and turned away from Homura. “Little o’ both,” she mumbled.

Homura chuckled nervously. “I would love to, Madoka-chan.”

Junko pulled up a few minutes later, continuing her chauffeur impression.

“Oy, boss! Sorry to make you wait! You can dock my pay for today if you feel it’s appropriate.”

“Hi, Mom,” Madoka replied, rolling her eyes.

“So, you girls have fun today?”

Homura traded glances with Madoka as they got settled in the car. “Yes we did, Kaname-san.”

Junko looked in the mirror and with a knowing smirk took off down the road.

“So Madoka, when are you gonna re-introduce me to Akemi-san as your girlfriend?”

“Wh-wh-whaaaaat? Mama, how-… how did you?”

“Well, I could say ‘You just have to trust in a mother’s intuition,’ but that’d be a load. Let's see: you’re blushing, holding hands, trading lovey-dovey looks... not to mention the fact you two came here by yourselves.”

Madoka blushed harder than ever and buried her face in her palms. “Nothing gets past you, Mama…”

Junko smiled. “Aw, nothing to be embarrassed about, sweetie. Young love is so cute!~” She then turned her glance in the rear-view mirror to Homura. “Akemi-san, would you care to have dinner at our house?”

Homura bolted upright and sat at attention. “I-If I’m not imposing, Kaname-san…”

“Can’t impose if I invite. Dinner it is! We'll just give your parents a call to let them know where you are.”

"O-oh... well, actually... they won't be wondering where I am. Um... I live alone in my apartment. My parents live out in the country, and the only hospital for miles and miles out there is just a small general one with no specialized wings. We used to take the train into Mitakihara for its hospital's cardio wing, so... when I had to go back to the hospital for an extended stay and check-ups after... they just rented an apartment in Mitakihara for me."

There was a moment of stunned silence in the car. A strawberry-red Madoka pulled her face out of her palms and looked mournfully at Homura.

"... Oh. Um, sorry about that, Akemi-san. Really."

"O-oh no, it's really okay!"

Homura turned to Madoka and rested a hand on her arm, trying her best to smile. Madoka returned a similarly feeble smile. The two sat quietly, holding hands and looking out the windows.

They wound up falling asleep in the back of the car, leaning against each other.


	7. Let Me Protect You

“… So by the time I got back to the office, Asagi-san had accidentally shredded all the contracts from the day before!”

Madoka and her father laughed as Junko revisited her favorite stories from work. The two would request various tales, each of which was heralded by an, “Ahh, that one!” before Junko began.

Homura chuckled quietly, keeping a reserved demeanor. Dinner at her new girlfriend’s house was going surprisingly well. She’d watched a lot of television and read a lot of books whenever she was in the hospital, so she’d become accustomed to the trope of dinner with the parents never going well. She was still mentally prepared for things to go awry at some point.

“You want any more yakitori, Homura-chan? Rice? Miso?” Madoka asked between her mother’s stories.

“O-oh, no thank you, Kaname-san. I have so much already.”

“Ohhh! So formal! No need to walk on eggshells on account of us, Akemi-san.” chimed Junko, “You little lovebirds use all your sweet pet names for each other. Use -chan, -tan, and all the cutesie names you can think of!”

“Um, mama, I don’t think we’ve been together long enough to have pet names yet…”

“Nonsense!” Madoka’s father rebutted cheerfully, “When your mother and I first started dating, she started calling me Tomokins almost immediately.”

“Oh! And when your father was carrying you, Madoka, I couldn’t help calling him Tomoheavy.”

“Tomoheavy! Tomoheavy!” Madoka’s little brother, Tatsuya repeated, laughing hysterically.

“Wow, Mama…” Madoka laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. “By the way, Homura-chan has been out of school for a while, so we were thinking of studying here tomorrow. Would that be okay?”

Junko and Tomohisa shared an approving glance. “Of course, Madoka!” Junko responded, “In fact, why bother going home if you girls are just planning to hang out tomorrow? Want to make this a slumber party, Akemi-san?”

Homura sat up rigidly. “O-oh, ummm… well, I mean, I don’t have any pajamas with me…”

_What is with this family and its crazy hospitality?!_

Junko waved her hand in front of her face dismissively, “Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem! You can just borrow some of Madoka’s. You two are roughly the same size.”

“W-well… that is… if I’m not imposing…”

“Can’t impose if I invite! Slumber party it is! I’ll get the futon rolled out in Madoka’s room right after we eat.”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura soaked in the bathtub, reflecting on the day’s events.

Today felt like it had been impossibly long. It reminded her of the day she first met Madoka.

She had a hard time believing that several hours ago, she’d ridden her first (and last) roller coaster and had had major heart palpitations. She found it even harder to believe that just a few hours before that, she had been panicking over what to wear for what turned out to be a date with Madoka.

_Madoka…_

Homura’s eyes wandered throughout the bathroom. Next door, just down the hall, Madoka was waiting for her.

_This is Madoka’s bathroom… the tub she’s sat in… the towels she’s dried herself with… the toilet she’s- oh fucking hell. No. Don’t think about that, actually._

She quickly finished washing and wiped herself dry with the pristine white towel Junko had laid out on the counter. She slipped on a set of pastel pink pajamas next to the towel. The legs and sleeves were just a little short on her, but besides that, they fit just fine.

Homura walked down the hall, calling to Madoka before she entered the room. “Madoka-chan? The bath is-… ready?”

Madoka wasn’t there.

Homura noticed a note lying on her futon.

> “Homura-chan, witch attack! Be back soon.
> 
> -Madoka”

Homura’s hand began to tremble as she read the note over and over.

It was bad enough to be alone in her apartment, isolated from the entire world, completely ignorant of whether Madoka was out fighting or not. But now Madoka was her girlfriend. And she was in Madoka’s room, still alone, but with the immediate knowledge that Madoka was out there right now, potentially lying dead in a gutter somewhere.

Homura’s knees began to wobble. She sat down on Madoka’s bed and flopped over on her side. Her head landed on the pillows. She could distinctly smell Madoka on them.

She clutched the pillow as tight as she could and silently cried herself to sleep.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“-an? Homura-chan? Heeey, Homura-chan?”

Homura bolted awake to Madoka standing in front of her, already wearing her pajamas.

“Heeeey. Sorry I had to run out. I hoped to be back before you got out of the bath, but that tricky witch started trying to run away, so we had to chase it all over the west end of town. It was crazy! Lots of candy and medicine and cheese. I had no idea what was going-… H-Homura-chan? You okay?”

Homura had begun weeping into the pillow she’d fallen asleep clutching. Her muffled sobs carried throughout the dead silence of the room.

Madoka stood stunned for a few moments before inching forward and gingerly wrapping her arms around Homura. Homura latched her arms around Madoka’s waist and clutched at the fabric of her blouse.

Madoka was at a loss for how to proceed. It was all she could think to do to gently stroke Homura’s damp hair and whisper consolations. “Shhhh, shh, shh… it’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay. I got you.”

Madoka crawled into bed with Homura and held her close. Homura sobbed quietly for a few more minutes before beginning to calm down.

“Something on your mind, Homura-chan? I’m all ears.”

“I just… you go out and keep Mitakihara safe, and all I do is sit around doing nothing, worrying that I’ll never see you again. I’m so weak… and so spineless…”

“Oh, Homura-chan…” Madoka hugged Homura tighter, gripping to her pajama fabric as well. “Homura-chan, I chose to become a magical girl to help protect everyone from witches, but the people close to me are what keep me going. You know what I was thinking about the whole time I was fighting this witch tonight?”

Homura weakly shook her head against Madoka’s shoulder.

“How much I wanted to protect you, so I could tell you stories about the witch we fought. Mama, Papa, Tatsuya, Sayaka-chan… they’re all dear to me, but you’re my only friend besides Mami-san who knows about the witches. You’re the only non-magical girl I can confide in.”

Madoka’s voice began to waver as she wiped away a tear.

“I was so excited to know I had you to talk to once the witch was taken care of. I felt… inspired by you.”

Homura looked up to Madoka, fighting back more tears. “How… could someone weak and spineless like me inspire _you_?”

Madoka hugged Homura close, stroking her hair. “Because you’re precious to me. I don’t see someone weak or spineless at all. I see someone who’s already made it through so much… I don’t want that flame you’ve kept lit for all these years to burn out. Let me protect you, Homura-chan. It’s what I became a magical girl to do.”

Homura sniffled, wiped her eyes, and nodded. “Th-… Thank you, Madoka-chan.”

Madoka kissed Homura’s forehead, and held her close until they both drifted into a peaceful sleep.


	8. Desire

Madoka’s cell phone rang out with a cheery alarm at 8:00 the next morning.

Madoka groggily reached across Homura to shut off the alarm, but couldn’t quite make it, so she climbed over Homura’s legs to hit the snooze.

Homura slowly opened her eyes to Madoka straddling her body. Both girls' faces exploded in red.

“O-oh! Hello, um… g-good morning, Madoka-chan.”

“H-… hi… H-Homura… chan…”

Madoka quickly got off of Homura and resumed lying beside her. The two avoided eye contact as Madoka fumbled for small talk.

“S-s-sleep well, Homura-chan?”

“Yes… just fine…”

“Um… that’s good.”

They furtively glanced towards each other before closing their eyes and leaning in towards one another.

“Breakfast! Breakfast! It’s breakfast time!~” Tatsuya sang as he trotted down the hall. Madoka’s bedroom door swung open.

“Shit!” Madoka whispered, as she hurriedly draped a blanked over the two of them.

“Madoka, up! Up! Breakfast time, breakfast time!”

Tatsuya waddled over to Madoka’s bed and smacked the covers with his hand. Homura let out a muffled shriek as Tatsuya patted her lower back and butt.

Madoka tried her best to still sound groggy. “Alriiiiight, Tatsuyaaaa. We’ll be down in just a sec.”

Tatsuya skipped away down the hall, continuing his breakfast song. Madoka threw the covers off immediately, clutching her chest.

“Ohhh, that was way too close.”

Homura’s hand was still clasped tightly over her mouth, her expression one of complete shock.

“S-… sorry, Homura-chan. I should’ve figured he’d do that.”

“N-no… it’s… you were okay, Madoka-chan. Really.”

Breakfast went smoothly and happily, as all things in the Kaname household seemed to do.

“So what are you girls planning to study today?” Madoka’s father asked as he wiped down plates at the sink.

“W-well, Kaname-san, I’ve fallen a bit behind at math since I left school, so Kana- er, Madoka-chan and I were going to review her notes from the past six months. M-mostly trigonometry and early calculus.”

“Ahhh, you’ve already lost me! I was never big on math. I was an art and literature kinda guy.”

“Heh, me too, sir,” replied Homura as Madoka led her back up the stairs to their room.

“And maybe if we have time, we can study some anatomy,” Madoka whispered in Homura’s ear. Homura’s face flushed instantly. She kept her back to Madoka’s parents to conceal her blush.

“Well, you girls have fun!” Junko called as she sipped her second cup of coffee at the table. “And Madoka, remember to keep that door open!”

Madoka grumbled under her breath. “Yes, mama!”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Madoka and Homura sat at Madoka’s desk, diligently focused on reviewing formulae throughout the morning. Homura made a lot of progress. The more she reviewed, the more she remembered.

Around noon, however, Madoka’s phone began to ring.

“Hello? Hi, Sayaka-chan! What’s up? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, I’m at home studying right now. Yeah, the parents are putting their foot down after I didn’t study at all yesterday. Um, sure. Yeah, I wouldn’t mind sometime this week. Arcade? Yeah, sure. Maybe we could bring Homura-chan along. Hey, what’s with that groan? Okay. Fine. Bye-bye!”

Madoka flipped her phone shut and smiled at Homura. “Sayaka-chan said she wanted to hang out with me sometime this week.”

Homura turned her head away and looked down at the floor. “But… not me?”

Madoka dismissively swatted her hand through the air. “Oh, she’s fine. She’s just slow to make new friends. But she’s so sweet once you get to know her.”

Homura’s heart sank.

_Yeah, I’m sure she’ll come around. Especially when she finds out Madoka and I are dating…_

Homura fidgeted with her mechanical pencil, constantly clicking out more lead and pushing it back in. “Madoka-chan… do you want me to be a magical girl?”

“Huh? I mean, I wouldn’t mind, but… where is this coming from?”

“I-it’s just… Miki-san said-“

“Oh, geez. Of course Miki-san said something,” Madoka sighed, “I love that girl to death, but she can get so fussy sometimes.”

Homura squirmed in place.

“I’m sorry, Homura-chan. I interrupted. What’d Sayaka say?”

“She just… she said that she’d known you almost her whole life, but had no idea what you were thinking these past few weeks. She was kinda angry that I knew something about you that she didn’t. So I thought… maybe, since you entrusted me with information about the witches… the least I could do… was-“

“Leap into the fray with me because Sayaka-chan sounds jealous?”

Homura looked away from Madoka and nodded sheepishly.

Madoka sighed. “Homura-chan, I would always appreciate help against the witches, but Mami-san and I make a really powerful team as it is. We aren’t struggling to beat our enemy or anything.”

She leaned over and gently rested her hand on Homura’s. “I chose to defend people from witches before I met you. You aren’t obligated to become a magical girl in any way. Certainly not because of something someone else said to make you feel guilty.”

Homura nodded, still avoiding eye contact with Madoka.

“Besides… there’s a lot that goes into making the wish that unlocks your power. Our abilities are kind of directly based off our wish. Like, I wished for a meteor shower, so my arrows take the form of shooting stars. They even scatter like a meteor shower when I fire.”

Madoka scooted her chair closer to Homura and draped an arm around her shoulder. Homura began to turn her gaze back to Madoka.

“And it’s not just the wish you make that determines your ability. It’s the context of the wish; the conditions you make them under. A petty rationale will surely impact your strength. That’s why, if you do become a magical girl, I want you to be able to make your wish because you choose to, not because you feel required to.”

Homura put down the pencil she’d been fiddling with and reached a hand up to hold the hand Madoka laid on her shoulder. Madoka beamed at Homura and kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll explain things to Sayaka-chan soon, but that’s my responsibility, not yours.”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

The girls took an afternoon break after eating a lunch of tuna fish sandwiches. Tomohisa insisted on cooking the two of them “brain food.”

They took a walk around Madoka’s surrounding neighborhood. Madoka made a point of introducing Homura to the neighborhood stray cat, which she had named Amy for some reason.

“Everyone just sorta leaves their scraps out for her after dinner. Papa doesn’t like food ever going to waste.”

When they got back to the Kaname household, they tried in vain to study a bit more, but quickly fell asleep at Madoka’s desk in the afternoon lull.

Homura dreamt that she was lying in bed with Madoka. It began gentle and platonic, but then Madoka sat up and began kissing Homura all over. The lips, the neck, the breasts…

However, once Madoka reached her stomach, Homura looked over to see Sayaka standing in the doorway of Madoka’s room. She looked angrier and angrier as Madoka continued to kiss Homura down the length of her stomach and her inner thighs.

“I’ve known her almost my entire life, but I have no idea what she’s been thinking these past couple weeks. And now you two are bosom buds after only a few days.”

Homura awoke with a start, breathing shallow and fast. She looked to the door. No one was there, of course. In a distant part of the house, she heard Junko playing with Tatsuya, childish giggling reverberating off the walls.

She looked to Madoka, who was still sleeping peacefully next to her. Homura blushed and fixated on her math homework until Madoka woke up.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura stayed for a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with the Kanames, at Junko’s insistence. She even offered to let Homura sleep over once again.

“I’m very sorry, Kaname-san, but I do actually need to go back to my apartment tonight. I need my school clothes and my books for tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s fine, but please don’t be a stranger. We’d love to have you again.”

Tomohisa nodded in agreement.

After dinner, Junko, Homura, and Madoka hopped in the car. The whole way back to Homura’s apartment, Junko sang along to 80s power ballads on the radio, much to Homura and Madoka’s amusement.

Upon reaching Homura’s apartment, Junko called to Madoka in between radio songs. “Five minutes, girls!”

“What does she mean by that, Madoka-chan?”

Madoka blushed to the tips of her ears. “I… I think she’s giving us five minutes… to ourselves.”

Homura joined Madoka in blushing furiously. She fumbled anxiously to get her key in the lock.

As soon as they were in Homura’s apartment, Madoka immediately pushed Homura against the door and kissed her deep.

Homura was pleasantly shocked, and returned the gesture. Their lips folded over each other, their tongues exploring each other.

Madoka’s fingertips begin to feel warmer. A feeling of desire began to grow inside her. It was a sensation she was beginning to become very familiar with. Her armpits began to feel hot and humid, and her mouth began to salivate more. She knew what was coming, but she was scared of allowing her scent to force Homura’s opinion. She let go and backed away from Homura.

“Madoka-chan? I’m sorry. Did I do something wrong?”

“N-no. You’re fine, it’s just-… Homura-chan, would you like to keep going?”

_Why is she asking? Of course I want to- ohhh._

“I- I- I wouldn’t mind…”

Madoka smiled as her breathing became heavier and more ragged. She swallowed hard and resumed pushing Homura against the door.

Homura felt her mind become awash in her favorite scent in the entire world. She wanted this. She arced her back, pressing her stomach against Madoka.

Madoka shifted around such that both of Homura’s hands were pinned by one of hers, and used her free hand to grasp at Homura’s petite breast.

Homura gasped and moaned into Madoka’s mouth. She wriggled one hand out of Madoka’s grasp to tug her blouse up. Madoka pinched and twisted at Homura’s taut nipple. She reluctantly pulled her mouth from Homura’s to suckle at Homura’s breast. Unfortunately, just before she kissed Homura’s chest, a loud rapping came at the door.

“Five minutes, ladies! C’mon, Madoka.”

Madoka growled under her breath and grudgingly pulled herself away from Homura’s slender chest. “Coming, Mama!” She smoothed out her clothes and waved her hand around in a futile attempt to dissipate her scent.

Before Madoka opened the door to her mom, Homura grabbed her shoulders and gave her one more passionate kiss. Madoka held onto Homura’s hand until she was out the door.

Homura was left by herself in her apartment, but Madoka’s scent wafting in the air made her feel like she wasn’t alone.

She leaned her back against the door and sank down to the floor, reaching her hands to her breasts and clit. She barely had to tease herself before massive waves of pleasure cascaded over her, leaving her body feeling exhausted, warmed, and craving more.

She fell asleep to fantasies of Madoka.


	9. How Much Does She Know?

Homura arrived at school earlier than usual on Monday morning. She felt more comfortable with some time to get settled before classes began, but more importantly, she was eager to see Madoka.

Madoka arrived a half hour after her with Sayaka. She waved at Homura enthusiastically as soon as she saw her.

Sayaka seemed to be in a friendly mood, but her expression dropped a bit upon seeing Homura. She took her seat several rows behind Homura, wrapping up her conversation with Madoka. She then mulled about in her seat a few moments before rising, sauntering over to Homura’s seat and leaning against the adjacent desk.

Homura fidgeted with her pencil, nervous to move more than her hands.

“Hey.”

“O-oh, hello, M-Miki-san.” Homura forced a weak smile.

Sayaka rubbed the back of her neck, looking chastened. “So… have a good weekend?”

_Oh goodness, how much does she know?!_

“Oh, i-it was fine. I... I studied a lot. Have to catch up in class.”

“Yeah… I get that.”

Sayaka looked back to Madoka, who mouthed “Go on, go on!” while gesturing encouragingly.

“So…  Madoka and I were thinking of hitting up an arcade after school sometime this week. You uh… you wanna come?”

Homura looked dumbfounded for a moment and nervously glanced back to Madoka out of the side of her eye. Madoka was beaming as she leaned forward in her desk, eagerly watching the conversation unfold.

“U-uh, sure, Miki-san. That would be nice.”

“Yeah, so uh… cool. Okay!”

Sayaka patted the top of Homura’s head, mussing up her hair a little, before walking back to her desk. Homura smoothed out her hair, feeling all-around confused.

_Does she know about Madoka and me? Does she know about the witches?_

_Does she even like me?_

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Lunch that day went smoother than the week before. Sayaka began making small talk with Mami, and included Homura in her conversations more.

“So did that manga you’re following update yet, Sayaka-chan?” Madoka asked between bites of tempura.

“Ugh, no! It’s killing me! They’re right in the middle of a huge battle, too. I swear, if they kill off Mika-chan, I’ll never forgive them!”

Homura twirled her soba around in her tray. “Um… w-what manga are you talking about, Miki-san?”

“ _Mercury Project_!” Sayaka leapt up and swung her arms about as she described the manga.

“It’s this awesome space fighting series where humans have colonized the solar system, see? But aliens have come from deep space and cut off communications between planets and practically enslaved the colonists.” Sayaka mimicked having her wrists fettered.

“And, like, no one knows they’re slaves cause the aliens have set up a massive hologram around each planet, so no one realizes there’s aliens in orbit over their planets controlling everything.”

“Oh, sounds like a labyrinth,” blurted Homura absentmindedly, before immediately clapping her mouth shut. Mami’s normally serene expression gave way to shock. Madoka almost dropped her chopsticks.

“What? Like in mythology? Uhh… I guess. I kinda always thought of it more like _The Matrix_.”

Madoka and Mami quietly breathed a sigh of relief behind Sayaka.

“Anyway, so, like, one day the hologram glitches on Mercury, and a few people catch on to what’s happening, so they start a resistance and go on this awesome crusade across the solar system to save the other eight planets!”

“Seven, Miki-san.” Mami calmly interjected.

“Huh?”

“There are only seven planets besides Mercury.”

“Pluto’s still a planet, dammit! There are colonists on it in _Mercury Project_!”

“It can be colonized and still not be a planet, Miki-san.”

Sayaka rubbed her forehead in frustration. “It’s… it’s still a planet to me!”

Mami and Madoka giggled. Homura smirked to herself.

Sayaka groaned as her stomach rumbled. “Argh! Whatever. I’m going to the restroom. Be right back.”

As she walked towards the stairwell, she called back to the other girls, “It’s totally a planet!”

As soon as Sayaka left the room, Homura sprang up and bowed profusely to Madoka and Mami.

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Kaname-san! Tomoe-san! I didn’t think! I’m so sorry!”

Madoka was taken aback by the sudden outburst from quiet, reserved Homura.

“I-it’s okay, Homura-chan. Really!”

“Did you think that Miki-san already knew about the witches?” Mami asked.

“That’s… actually on me,” Madoka replied. “I talked to Sayaka this morning about her being jealous of me being friends with Homura-chan. I wanted to explain witches and magical girls, but I had no idea where to start. It’s surprisingly hard to explain it to someone who hasn’t seen a witch already.”

Madoka turned to Homura. “She knows that we hung out this weekend, mostly to study. I wanted to tell her we were dating, but I didn’t know how to phrase it.”

Mami looked pleasantly surprised. “Ahh, I thought I noticed something there. Congratulations, you two.” She teasingly put her finger to her lips. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.”

At that moment, Sayaka burst through the door to the roof. “I’m back, kids! I held an impromptu memorial to Pluto in the bathroom. I’m feeling better!”

Mami chuckled, “When did it die, Miki-san?”  


“When science killed it!”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura walked home with Madoka and Sayaka as usual. She wanted desperately to hold Madoka’s hand, but she was nervous to reveal their relationship to Sayaka.

Madoka used their time together to try to organize their hangout at the arcade.

“So… when’s everyone free this week? Are you visiting Kamijou-san any days this week, Sayaka-chan?”

Sayaka was caught off guard. “Eh? Uhhh, well, I was thinking of maybe stopping by on Tuesday and Thursday. His nurse is extra-busy those days, so he gets kinda lonely.”

Madoka taunted Sayaka a little. “Aww, you know his whole schedule and how best to make him happy. So cute! Just like a girlfriend.”

Sayaka was flustered and held her hands up in front of her. “Hey, hey. Woah! That’s just- I mean- we’re both just old friends, y’know? Besides, two alphas? Not to sound… I dunno, but that’s kinda weird, right?”

Madoka spun around and began walking backwards, facing Sayaka. “Well… I don’t know about that. I guess it’s a little unusual, but I don’t really see anything wrong with it.”

“I-I agree,” Homura said, backing Madoka up. “I read a lot of romance novels in the hospital… um, but only because the hospital didn’t keep much else on their book carts! Um… so there were a lot of different relationships portrayed, and it seemed like the essence of a person mattered more than their sexes.”

Sayaka rubbed her neck, avoiding eye contact. “Well, I mean… yeah, sure. Whatever. It’s just… Kamijou-kun and I are just friends. Honest!”

Madoka smirked as she turned back around and continued walking. “Well, if you say so.”

Homura timidly tried to reel the conversation back. “U-um… I’m free every day this week…”

“Oh, right. Sorry, Homura-chan!” Madoka chimed, bonking herself on the head. “Well, how about we plan for Wednesday?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Wednesday. Sounds good,” Sayaka responded. The girls walked another couple blocks in silence.

“Well, so… here’s my turn. I’ll, uh… see you guys tomorrow!” Sayaka waved goodbye and hastily walked off.

Once she had rounded the corner, Madoka hugged Homura close. Homura slumped into Madoka’s shoulders.

“Ugh… she hates me.”

“Aww, no she doesn’t, Homura-chan. She’s just slow to open up. You two are talking. That’s a great sign!”

“You sure? I mean, I’ve had plenty of people who don’t like me still talk to me, and-“

Madoka pecked Homura on the lips. “Trust me. You’re doing fine.”

Homura blushed and, scanning the area around her first, leaned in for a longer kiss. Madoka pressed their lips together as she gently pushed Homura against a wall.

Homura clutched Madoka’s waist and pulled her stomach towards her. They began to lose sense of their surroundings.

They didn’t even hear Sayaka rounding the corner again.

“Oh, wait Madoka! I just remembered I have a dentist-… appointment…”

Madoka leapt off of Homura as soon as she heard Sayaka, but she was too late.

“What the fuck is this!?”


	10. Believing

“Sayaka-chan! Please, just hold on!”

“Why? Don’t you want me out of your hair so you can keep on exploring transfer student’s mouth?”

Madoka chased after Sayaka as she stormed down the sidewalk. Homura stood utterly stunned before stumbling after both of them.

“I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how you’d react!”

“Well isn’t it just great that I took the initiative and found out for myself?!”

Madoka ran ahead of Sayaka and stood in her tracks. “Look, I know you’re angry, but let’s just calm down and talk this out!”

Sayaka stopped in front of Madoka, arms folded and pouting. “What’s there to talk about? You’re slobbering all over transfer student the second I turn my back. Don’t you just want me out of the way so you can get back to that?”

“That’s… that’s not it, Miki… Miki-san,” Homura panted as she finally caught up to the two of them.

“Stay out of this,” snapped Sayaka without even turning to face her.

“Hey! Sayaka-chan, c’mon. I know you’re mad, but please. Let’s try to be civil.”

Sayaka stared down Madoka, then turned to glare at Homura, who was clutching a stop sign to catch her breath.

“Fine.” She leaned against a nearby fence, letting her full weight sink into the chain links.

Madoka walked over to Homura, letting her lean on her shoulder. “Look… Sayaka-chan, this is really recent. Really. We only started going out this Saturday. Late in the afternoon, at that.”

Sayaka stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact. “And in that time, you’ve had at least three opportunities to tell me, and you didn’t.”

Madoka fidgeted in place, fumbling with her bag strap. “I-… I was looking for the right moment.”

“Well doesn’t this just feel like the perfect time?” Sayaka grumbled. She sighed, looking up towards the setting sun. “Look, whatever. You’re dating. Great. Thanks for letting me know at all, I guess.”

“I… I promise you’re still my best friend, Sayaka-chan.”

“Excuse me if I don’t quite believe you.”

Sayaka bounced off of the wire fence and began to saunter away before Madoka called after her. “Sayaka-chan! Are we-… I mean… we should still do the arcade. Um… Friday works if you have a dentist appointment Wednesday.”

“Whatever. Sure.” Sayaka rounded the corner and was out of sight.

Homura kept her eyes fixed on the sidewalk. Her heart ached with the same kind of chest-crushing tightness from early last week.

“Ma-… Madoka-chan… I-I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

“No, Homura-chan. This isn’t your fault. It’s really not. Everything’s gonna be okay… I promise.” Madoka tried her best to console Homura with a weak smile, but Homura didn’t feel particularly convinced.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

The next few days were tense. Sayaka’s bitter mood brought lunch and break conversations to a standstill. Homura and Madoka avoided talking to each other much during school. Every time they tried to converse, Sayaka promptly rose and left the room.

After school, Sayaka still walked home with Madoka and Homura, but none of them talked. The silence weighed heavily around them until one would quietly part ways. Come Thursday, however, Sayaka finally spoke up.

“Are… can we still be on for Friday?”

Madoka jerked her head to face Sayaka. “Eh? Um… what do you mean, Saya- oh! The arcade?”

Sayaka nodded weakly. “I… I’m still pissed, but I’m tired of brooding like a bitch. I just wanna shoot some zombies and get past this already.”

Homura interjected, fumbling with her fingers and averting her gaze. “I… I’ll stay away if you want, Miki-san.”

“No!” replied Madoka and Sayaka in unison, the former much more emphatic than the latter.

“Honey, if Sayaka-chan is going to adjust, we should hang out together.”

Sayaka shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, come along, transfer kid. Might as well.”

The three tentatively planned to head over to the arcade the following afternoon.

Later that evening, Homura sat bunched-up on her bed, slogging through her readings for history. She constantly lost track of the words on the page and had to reread the passages.

Suddenly, her pocket buzzed. She flipped open her phone.

“Hi Homura-chan! Boring night lol! All we found was some runty familiar”

Homura tapped away on her phone, happy for an excuse to stop reading.

“It’s cause you’re so strong, dear.”

As soon as Homura sent her text, she got another message from Madoka.

“We still good 4 tomorrow?”

The pit of Homura’s stomach sank.

“I’m a little nervous, Madoka-chan. Are you sure I won’t make things worse?”

“Sweetheart, u never make things worse. It’ll be okay!”

Homura blushed and smiled. “ _You never make things worse.”_ She had trouble completely believing Madoka, but it was reassuring all the same.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura spent most of Friday fretting over how the arcade would go. School was over before she realized it.

As she idled in the school lobby to walk to the arcade with the other two, Madoka popped up behind her, whispering in her ear. Homura reflexively leapt off the ground in surprise.

“Homura-chan, I gotta run out and take care of a witch real quick.”

“What? No, no, no! Not now! What do I do about Sayaka?”

“Just tell her the truth: I’m running behind but I’ll be there soon.”

“I-… I don’t know…”

“I _promise_ I’ll be quick! Love you!” Madoka grasped Homura’s hand before she ran on ahead, leaving Homura in stunned silence.

“Hey,” she heard from behind her again. Homura shrieked briefly and wheeled around to see Sayaka standing awkwardly far from her for a conversation. Sayaka shuffled closer as she spoke.

“I guess we’re just waiting on Madoka, then?”

“U-uhh, th-that is… um, er… well…” Homura babbled.

Sayaka sighed. “She’s not coming, is she?”

“N-no! She is, she is! She’s just… running a little late. She said for us to just meet her at the arcade.

Sayaka exasperatedly threw her hands up. “Sure, why the fuck not? Better than nothing, I guess.”

Sayaka took off at a rapid stride, leaving Homura dashing to catch up. Homura didn’t know what to say or do, so she remained a few paces behind. Gradually, Sayaka’s pace slowed, and Homura tried to break the ice.

“Listen, Miki-san… I… I’m really sorry about this.”

Sayaka kept walking.

“I… I know we’ve gotten off on bad terms, but… but I really do want to-… Miki-san?”

Sayaka’s pace had slowed even further, and she was now ambling clumsily forward, dragging her feet with each step she took.

Homura ran up beside Sayaka

“Miki-san, what’s wrong? What is… it…”

On Sayaka’s neck, an intricate seal hovered just off her skin, glowing black.

_A witch’s kiss._


	11. I Don't Want to Be Alone Anymore

“Miki-san! Please! Stop! You’re not yourself.”

Sayaka swept her arm through the air dismissively. “It doesn’t matter… so I’m going home…”

_What do I do what do I do what do I do?!_

Homura silently panicked as she followed Sayaka to watch where the witch was taking her.

_Madoka! Got to tell Madoka-chan._

She pulled out her phone and began typing Madoka’s phone number, but her trembling hands kept causing her to mess up. Eventually, she finally took note of the address book and found Madoka’s number in there.

“C’mon, pick up pick up pick up.”

The phone rang a few times before going to voicemail.

_Goddammit!_

She spoke in hushed tones behind Sayaka. “M-Madoka-chan? Uhh, Miki-san is… she has a witch’s k-kiss and she’s walking somewhere. I don’t know what to do. I really don’t. Oh god… u-um, we’re-… actually, we’re passing the arcade now, walking…”

Homura checked the position of the setting sun.

“-south. We’re heading south on 12th, just past the arcade. Please, Madoka… please get this.”

She flipped her phone shut for only a moment before her anxiety prompted her to open it again and begin texting Madoka.

Mid-text, however, her phone buzzed. Madoka.

_Oh thank goodness!_

As soon as she pressed “Accept,” Madoka was yelling on the other end.

“Homura-chan, are you hurt?!”

“U-um, no. No, I-“

“Where’s Sayaka-chan?! What happened?!”

“We-… we were walking to the arcade. M-Miki-san was kind of sullen about it just being herself and me, then she just started… shuffling. L-like a zombie or s-something.”

“Stay with me! Don’t hang up! We’re on our way!”

“O-… okay. Where are you n-now?”

“Intersection of 14th and 28th. GPS says we’ll be there in 15 minutes on foot, but that’s at walking pace. We’re booking it! Just hang in there, Homura-chan! _And don’t hang up!”_

“Okay… Okay… Okay… Okay,” Homura stammered for lack of anything else to say to say.

Homura followed behind Sayaka a few more minutes before she noticed other people shuffling on the sidewalks. One person showed up on the other side of the street, another rounded an intersection in front of them and shuffled on down their street. They were all headed in the same direction.

“Oh god!” Homura cried when she noticed.

“What is it, Homura?!” Madoka called through her heaving breath.

“There’s more of them! They’re all going to the same place, wherever that is.”

“Where are you now?”

“Still on 12th. About to pass… 15th.”

“We’re getting there! Just hang on!”

Soon after, the witch’s thralls reached their destination: an old, dilapidated warehouse.

“Madoka… we’ve stopped.”

“What was that?!” Madoka sounded muffled by static.

“We stopped at a-“

“Ho---a? --mura?! Dam---, where --- go?!”

“I- I’m right-“

“Da—it!”

The call cut out. Homura frantically checked her phone. Only one wavering bar.

Homura was alone, in a room with at least a dozen witch-controlled thralls, with no way to contact Madoka.

She scoured the room for anything that could help her situation. She noticed some rusted tools on a work bench, a couple dusty ropes tied on the ceiling, and a few thralls carrying iconic red gasoline containers.

_Gasoline?!_

A thrall stepped forward to speak.

“We are gathered here today to go home. We do not want to be alone anymore. So we will go home.”

Every thrall replied, “We want to go home.”

The fuel-toting thralls all lifted their jugs in unison and began pouring it all over the floor.

“No!” screamed Homura as she began to run towards the containers. Sayaka, who Homura had instinctively remained close to, wheeled around and grabbed Homura by the wrists. “Don’t you want to go home, transfer student?”

“No. No. No no no!” Homura wrenched her hands free from Sayaka. The smell was nauseating. Her head was starting to swim. She needed to vent the room somehow. She bolted for the workbench, grabbed a rusty crowbar, and began smashing windows as fast as she could.

The thralls didn’t take kindly to this, and all rushed her at once. Homura shrieked and ran for a storage closet. She barely managed to get the door closed before everyone else was pounding and pulling on it. Homura wedged her crowbar through the handle, blocking their entrance.

After thirty seconds of struggling, the pounding stopped. A voice beyond the door said, “We do not need her to go home. You, watch the door. We will bring her home with us.

“Yes. She will go home,” said Sayaka’s voice through the door.

Homura curled up in the closet, shivering. It was pitch-black. She was cornered, powerless to stop whatever they were doing out there. She had her suspicions, but being unable to see for sure felt so much worse than watching things unfold.

She heard a whoosh, followed by popping and crackling. Of course, they lit the gasoline.

Homura heard a mixture of screaming and laughter, cheering and wailing.

She curled up in a ball and screwed her eyes shut.

_This is it. We’re all dead. I’m dead. I’m so sorry, Madoka. I’m so sorry…_

Homura suddenly felt… different. Almost like she was floating. She opened her eyes. She was still in inky darkness, but the floor was gone. The sounds beyond the closet were gone. The entire warehouse was gone.

Suddenly, pictures from her memory seemed to pop up in midair. Overhearing her parents lament getting an omega daughter, the weeks she spent in hospitals without a single visitor, her blunders on her first day back at Mitakihara, every cutting remark Sayaka ever made…

A strobe light began flashing rapidly, animating the scenes before Homura. They repeated themselves over and over, drilling themselves into Homura’s mind.

“I guess I really am unwanted. I bring so much misfortune to anyone I get close to. No wonder people don’t want to get close to me. I belong here. I belong in this void. At least here I can’t ruin anyone else’s-“

She fell. The sense of weightlessness dissipated instantly and Homura felt like she was in constant free-fall. She tried to scream, but she couldn't even find her voice anymore. Instead, all she heard was a little girl's sinister snickering from all corners of the void, echoing off invisible corners.

“ _Come home with me. I don't want to be alone anymore.”_

No matter how far she fell, the flashing lights and animated memories remained. It was beyond disorienting to feel like she was falling despite her eyes telling her she wasn't moving at all.

Homura's stomach churned and her head throbbed. She didn't even know how long she'd been falling. Time didn't even feel like a real thing anymore.

However, as suddenly as she had begun falling, a brilliant flash of pink stars streaked across the darkness and shattered several of the memories at once. The stars kept scattering throughout the void, smashing anything in their path. Soon, the void began to evaporate, and the sense of falling was replaced with the cold hard pressure of the floor.

Madoka and Mami stood before her, the closet door open. Sayaka lay unconscious next to them. In the warehouse, the fire looked to be put out before it caused too much damage, but all the thralls were bound with red and gold ribbons against the walls.

Madoka squatted down to console her girlfriend.

“H-... Homura-chan? Are you okay?”

Homura sat stunned and trembling a few moments before she broke down at Madoka’s feet, wailing into her frilly pink shoes.

 


	12. Shock

Madoka kneeled down and cradled Homura, who was wailing profusely. “Shhh, it’s okay, Homura-chan.”

Mami rested a hand on Madoka’s shoulder. “Kaname-san. We need to get out of here. Can you get her up?”

Madoka looked up to Mami with pleading eyes. “But… she’s been through so much. Can’t we give her just a moment?”

“You know we can’t,” Mami said grimly, “Two people are dead. We have to get out of here before the police arrive.”

Homura heard the conversation, but couldn’t stop her tears long enough to reply. Two people were dead because she didn’t act quickly enough. If only she’d done things differently. If only she could turn back time.

Madoka looked down at Homura sobbing into her skirt. “Homura-chan, dear, we have to get out of here. Can you stand?”

Homura nodded weakly in Madoka’s lap. Madoka blushed ever so slightly. In a less horrific context, Homura’s head rubbing into her pelvis would feel rather nice.

Mami picked Sayaka up and draped her unconscious body over her shoulders while Madoka helped pull Homura to her feet and clutched her waist to support her. “C’mon, sweetie. Let’s go to Mami-san’s. A little tea will help.”

Homura blubbered out an “Uh huh” between heaving breaths.

The group hobbled their way down two blocks before coming across the warehouse district train tracks. “If we follow the tracks and turn left at the junction, we should be close to my house and dodge a lot of streets and sidewalks,” Mami suggested in hushed tones.

Their trek down the tracks went quicker than expected without crosswalks to wait at. The girls were far away from the warehouse before they heard sirens blaring in the direction they had fled from.

Mami guided Madoka and Homura to her apartment without incident. She slumped Sayaka off her back and onto the couch as gingerly as she could, then immediately headed to the kitchen and filled her kettle with water.

Homura had stopped crying midway down the tracks, but she continued to shudder and rock back and forth on her feet. It took Madoka a couple minutes to ease her down to the floor.

Mami bustled out of the kitchen with a cold, wet towel to lay over Sayaka’s forehead when the kettle began to whine. She hurriedly slathered the cloth on Sayaka’s head before rushing back to the kitchen, audibly fumbling with her teacups.

“Um… do you need any help, Mami-san?” Madoka peeped.

“No, no. I’m fine. You just tend to Akemi-san, please.”

Madoka did the only thing she should think to do: draping an arm around Homura’s rigid form and half-hugging her. Homura merely continued to stare forward, barely taking note of whatever her eyes beheld. The entire world felt surreal, fake, like all the buildings in Mitakihara’s skyline were wooden props. Homura felt like if she walked behind any of the buildings in her view, she’d find an elaborate theater set keeping up the illusion of a city.

“Akemi Homura, you could always make a contract, you know?” butted in Kyubey. The curious creature always seemed to appear as rapidly as it vanished. Or maybe it just lived at Mami’s apartment.

“Shh! Kyubey, not now!” Madoka whispered.

Homura barely took notice, but she was ripped from her daze soon after when Sayaka suddenly regained consciousness and screamed as loud as she could. Her voice was thick and hoarse from the smoke in the warehouse, but she was still painfully loud. Mami dropped a teacup in shock, which sprayed scalding tea and shattered glass across the kitchen floor. Madoka scrambled to kneeling over Sayaka and trying her best to console her.

“Sayaka-chan! It’s okay! You’re safe! It’s okay! Please, stop!” Madoka babbled while frantically patting Sayaka’s chest and shoulders. Homura wanted to help, but the screaming only caused her to further freeze up and clench every muscle in her body.

Sayaka didn’t stop screaming until Mami charged into the living room and threw a teacup’s worth of cold water in her face. Sayaka sputtered and coughed as she bolted upright. “Mami-san! What are you doing!? She’s just scared!” Madoka exclaimed.

“It is better for all of us if my neighbors don’t hear prolonged screaming and come down to check on us,” Mami replied sternly. She scolded Sayaka as she continued bustling about the apartment, fetching a broom for the kitchen. “Miki-san, I understand your surprise and concern, but let’s at least try to keep our inside voices, shall we?”

“Mami-san!” Madoka hissed.

Sayaka began breathing rapidly as her head swam and her skin formed goosebumps all over. “W-w-w-where a-am I? W-w-what’s going-… going on?” she stammed through violent shivers. Madoka impotently tried to console her. “Shh, shhh. This is just Mami-san’s apartment. Everything’s, uh, gonna be okay. Um… Mami-san, I think she’s going into shock! We need a blanket!”

“Humans further incapacitate themselves when they’re injured? How counter-productive,” mused Kyubey.

“W-w-w-what th-th-the f-f-fuck is _that_?” Sayaka blurted out, pointing at the talking ferret-thing on the coffee table. “Kyubey,” Mami plainly stated as she tossed a thick, plush comforter towards Madoka on her uninterrupted path back to the kitchen.

Madoka scrambled to unfold the blanket as she implored Sayaka to lie back down. Sayaka continued her grizzled, rapid breathing, but slumped back down in a daze. Madoka clumsily loosened Sayaka’s belt and unzipped her jeans, as per her first aid training, flushing in embarrassment when her hand brushed over the small bulge under Sayaka’s panties. She then wrapped the blanket over Sayaka to keep her warm. “That… better…” Sayaka panted, “chest… tight…”  Madoka glanced down to Homura, who was still a trembling mess, before nervously reaching under Sayaka’s shirt and fumbling her bra hook off. Immediately, Sayaka’s breaths began to become deeper. Her pace of breathing gradually subsided, and she slowly regained a sense of lucidity in her eyes.

Mami thrust her dustpan full of wet glass shards into the trash and soon after came out to the living room carrying a tray of four teas. Madoka harshly whispered that people in shock shouldn’t drink anything, to which Mami sighed and shrugged. “Fine.”

Sayaka slowly rolled over on her side to face the girls. “Tea? Smells good…” she said, sniffing the air.

“Lemon-chamomile, to be specific,” replied Mami. “She seems lucid enough to me, Kaname-san.”

Madoka grumbled and held out a cup and saucer to Sayaka, insisting she only take “little-tiny-baby sips.” Sayaka dragged herself up to a half-sitting position, taking a little-tiny-baby sip and handing the cup back to Madoka. Madoka then took a second cup and made the same doting gestures to Homura, who was still rigid as a board.

“So…” Sayaka began weakly as she fished her bra out from under her shirt, “… what the fuck is going on here?”

Mami and Madoka collectively sighed. “I guess we do kinda owe you an explanation, Sayaka-chan. Alright, here goes.”


	13. I Guess We Owe You an Explanation

Sayaka laid back, propped up against the arm of Mami’s couch and folding her arms. “So… I got hypnotized by one of these ‘witch’ things, along with a bunch of other people. Then what happened?”

“W-well, someone else must’ve set a fire. We’re not entirely sure about the details,” Madoka explained, rubbing the back of her neck. “We barely got there in time to put out the fire before it spread too far. We found you knocked out in front of a closet that Homura-chan was inside.”

All eyes turned to Homura to fill in the details. Madoka had been sitting next to her throughout the explanation, with an arm consolingly wrapped around her shoulder. “Homura-chan? Is there… anything you can tell us to help fill in the gaps?”

Homura shivered before she explained in a barely audible mumble, “Th-there w-w-were a few with… with g-gas c-c-cans. I… the… the fumes made it hard to think. I smashed some windows, but…” Homura’s breath caught and she gasped a few more heaving sobs. Madoka eased Homura’s head onto her shoulder. “It’s okay, dear. You can do it.”

Homura nodded into Madoka’s shoulder, gathered herself with a few shaky breaths, then continued. “They… th-they came for me w-when I smashed the w-w-windows. I locked myself in the closet and-… wait… I l-locked myself in the closet,” she said, turning her timid eyes up to Madoka. “How… how did you two get in?”

“Labyrinths are strange places, Akemi-san,” Mami interjected. “When we first arrived, we bound all the thralls up so they didn’t interfere as we put out the fire. When you weren’t in the warehouse proper, we went into the labyrinth to look for you. After finding you, we dispatched the witch and found ourselves on the other side of the closet door when the labyrinth dissipated.”

“Huh” was all Homura could muster in response. She was in no fit state to marvel at the inner workings of labyrinths, interesting as they were. Rather, she hoped she’d never have to see one again. “A-anyway- sorry to interrupt- I locked the door and I heard the rest of the thralls tell Miki-san to guard the door. They kept saying something about ‘going home.’”

“Well that sounds hella creepy,” said Sayaka hoarsely.

“Th-then… then… it got dark. Really dark. And… and I…” Homura couldn’t take anymore. She screwed her eyes shut and began sobbing again. Madoka stroked her fingers through Homura's hair, doing her best to console her. “Shhhh sh sh, it’s all over. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

_Not for those two people I killed…_

Madoka continued whispering gentle encouragements to Homura until her phone suddenly rang. “Oh, geez. It’s my mom.” She took a deep breath, collected herself, then hit “Accept.”

“Madoka, where are you? You can’t possibly still be playing games at the arcade, can you?”

“O-oh, sorry mama! We got a little caught up with this one game, then we went over to my friend Mami’s house for some tea. I’ll, uh, I’ll head home right now.”

“Alright sweetie. No need to rush. It’s not like it’s a school night or anything. We just missed you at dinner.”

“I-… I’m really sorry mama. Say… um, by the way,” she glanced down to Homura, who was doing her best to stifle her crying, “Can Homura-chan spend the night again tonight?”

Junko squealed with delight into the phone. “Oh, of course she can! We have enough leftovers for the both of you! You two hurry on over!”

“Okay mama. Love you. See ya.” Madoka slowly closed her phone, turning her attention to Sayaka. “U-um, if you want, you’re welcome too, Sayaka-chan. I’m sure my mom wouldn’t mind. I just figured… your parents would probably wonder where you were…”

“Nah, whatever. I’m fine. I don’t wanna get in the way of all your smoochy-woochy crap.” Sayaka made shadow puppet faces with both her hands and smooshed them together. “Besides, what about transfer student’s parents? Why do you get to make decisions without asking them?”

“U-um… well, that is… Homura-chan… lives alone.”

“Oh…” Sayaka rubbed her neck, averting her gaze.

“B-but you don’t have to come if you don’t want Homura-chan. I just… I’m worried about you being alone tonight, what with the-“

Homura weakly nudged Madoka’s shoulder, whimpering an inaudible response. “I, uh, I’ll take that as a yes. Well, I guess we should be going. Are you okay to stand, Sayaka-chan?”

“If it’s alright with you, Tomoe-san, I wouldn’t mind staying till I finish my cup of tea. I had a few more questions about this whole magical girl thing anyway.”

“That’s not a problem, Miki-san. I’d enjoy the company.”

Madoka got on her feet, then helped pull Homura up. “Thank you very much for all your help tonight, Mami-san. I’m sorry I got tense earlier.”

“It was a tense situation,” replied Mami as she took a sip of tea. “No hard feelings.”

“Well, I guess we’ll, uh… yeah. See you soon.” Madoka awkwardly turned to leave, draping Homura’s arm across her shoulder and holding her side.

As soon as the door clicked behind Madoka and Homura, Sayaka leaned in towards Mami. “Alright, what’s up with this wishes thing? Can you get anything you want?”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

It took Madoka longer than usual to get home from Mami’s house, as she was propping up Homura for most of the trek. By the time they were at Madoka’s house, though, Homura was carrying her own weight and had at least managed the façade of a calmer demeanor.

They were greeted by a pajama-clad Junko, who answered the door so soon after Madoka knocked that she wondered if she’d been camped out by the door just to say hello to Homura again. Homura bowed before crossing the threshold, thanking Junko for allowing her to spend the night on such short notice.

“Nonsense, dear! Our home is your home. Get on in here!”

The girls quietly scarfed down the leftovers of microwaved tonkatsu and miso soup. They didn’t realize how hungry they were until there was actual food in front of them. “Thank you so much for the food, Kaname-san,” Homura said, bowing her head to Madoka’s father as he wiped down the last pan in the sink. “Oh, no no. It was nothing. Besides, Junko helped me out with this meal tonight, so I couldn’t take all the credit anyway.”

“Throwing miso paste, water and tofu in a pot hardly counts as helping!” Junko called out from down the hall, her voice muffled by toothpaste.

“Too bad! You’re getting credit anyway!” Tomohisa chuckled.

The girls excused themselves immediately after eating. Madoka halfheartedly suggested baths only once before recognizing how exhausted they both were. “Eh, we’ll just grab one in the morning.”

Homura excused herself to the bathroom to change into a pair of Madoka’s pajamas. When she came back, Madoka was already buried under the covers, her uniform cast off on the floor. “Madoka-chan, your uniform will wrinkle!”

Madoka groaned into her pillow, “Too tired…”

Homura then lifted up the covers to discover Madoka clad only in her underwear and a camisole, causing her to flush instantly. “M-Madoka!”

“Too tired! And it’s too hot!” Madoka groaned again. “Besides, we’re dating and we’re both girls.”

“N-not the same kind, though!” Homura whispered loudly, doing a terrible job of averting her eyes from the distinct lump under Madoka’s panties.

Madoka weakly flailed under the covers. “Fine, I’ll put on some bottoms. Mind handing me a pair?”

Homura acquiesced, clumsily handing them to Madoka’s general direction as she kept her back turned. After a few moments and an, “Alright, you can turn around now," Homura turned around.

"Can we at least open a window?" Madoka asked. Homura knelt across the bed, reaching for the window, before noticing the inky darkness outside and instantly recoiling.

"Can... can we maybe turn on the fan instead?" she whimpered.

"O-oh, yeah. Sure sweetie."

Homura reached up and tugged the cord on the overhead fan, then joined Madoka in bed.

Madoka rolled over and laid an arm across Homura’s stomach. “You, uh, wanna talk anything out? I’m sure you’re still a little jarred.”

Homura sighed with exhaustion. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Is… was it a good idea to leave Miki-san with Tomoe-san? What if she can’t get home?”

Madoka shrugged. “She wasn’t in shock when we left, so I think she’s gonna be okay physically. And she chose to stay behind. I guess all we can do is trust in her. Besides, if she really needed help getting home, her parents both have cars. They could pick her up.”

“School’s going to be really awkward come Monday…”

“Welcome to our world. We’ve saved other classmates already, and they don’t even remember. You know Hitomi? I feel like I introduced you to her once…”

The two continued talking for a few more minutes before Madoka drifted to sleep first. Homura kept trying to close her eyes, but her mind kept flashing back to so many moments throughout the day: the thralls shuffling down the sidewalk, the screaming laughter on the other side of the warehouse closet, the infinite void of the labyrinth, Madoka’s panties…

She knew she was bound to have some messed up dreams that night.


	14. I Need to Know this Nightmare Isn't the Rest of My Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Abusively Argumentative Parents

Homura tossed and turned in her sleep. Her mind kept taking her to quiet, isolated places, alone with Madoka. Once it was a dinghy on a placid sea, next a sauna in the tundra, then a desert oasis. Each time, she would embrace Madoka, push her down to the floor and have her way with her: dancing her fingers across Madoka’s collarbone, pinching her attentive nipples, spreading her thighs. For an alpha, dream-Madoka was surprisingly passive.

Each time, Madoka’s sex would swell from between her folds, and each time, Homura would hover over her, ready to envelop it. However, each time she sank her pelvis down, Madoka and the entire world would vanish, and she’d fall.

Her dreams kept ending this way. She’d awake with a start every hour or so, prompting an “Nnnngh, iz okay Homu” and a comforting arm across her stomach from Madoka. Homura looked over to Madoka’s sleeping face after a couple nightmares. She gazed at her fluttering eyes, her tousled hair, the tiny wet spot on the pillow by her mouth. She smiled at her girlfriend’s beauty, but couldn’t help feeling like she was taking advantage of her, both in reality and her mind. She rolled over, facing away from Madoka and screwing her eyes shut again.

Her next dream was different. In it, Madoka was sitting with Homura in a vast field. Homura glanced away for only a second, and Madoka was replaced with a crude ragdoll. Homura reached for the doll, but she suddenly began to sink into the ground, as if the grass and flowers were quicksand.

She clawed and scratched at the chair the doll rested on, but whenever she tried to grasp it, her fingers just combed through thin air. She tried to scream, but her mouth was soon submerged and she felt thick, goopy liquid flooding her throat. She couldn’t breathe. Her hands flailed in the air above, and as soon as her fingertips sunk through the ground, she fell again.

Homura awoke with a gasp and rolled over to make sure Madoka was not, in fact, a doll.

Madoka wasn’t there.

She bolted upright and looked around for Madoka, but she was nowhere to be found. In fact, this... wasn’t even Madoka’s room. She was all too familiar with it, though. She threw her dust-sprinkled blanket off her and ran to the window. There was no mistaking it.

_What… what am I doing at Mom and Dad’s house?!_

As her eyes adjusted to the moonlit room, Homura saw it was just as she left it… only with a lot of boxes stowed in the corner by the foot of her bed.

_They… already turned my room into storage?_

She slowly opened her bedroom door, remembering to lift up on the handle so the hinges didn’t squeak. Creeping into the foyer, Homura gazed up to the heirloom chandelier that was always her favorite part of the house. Hundreds of panes of scintillating glass scattered the moonlight across the walls.

Upstairs, the light in her parents’ room was still on, causing her to reflexively recoil back towards the threshold to her room. Homura stilled her breathing and listened closely. She could just barely make out the low droning of the TV.

Suddenly, a heavy body thumped against the front door. Homura quietly shrieked into her hands, closing her bedroom door as far as she could while still being able to peek out. After a minute of clumsy rattling, a thick middle-aged man stumbled through the front door.

_Dad?!_

As soon as he was in the house, the foyer light flicked on, and Homura heard her mother screaming from the top of the stairs.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?!”

“Not late ‘nuff, if yer awake…”

“It’s three in the goddamn morning! Pissing away my money again, weren’t you? WEREN’T YOU?!”

“You shut yer mouth! We got plenny of cash in the bank, bitch!”

“That money is mine!”

“Like fuck it is! Shit-ass heirs acting like they’re hot shit…”

 “Besides, it’s for our sick daughter!”

“Oh would you just fucking stop with that awful excuse! Goddamn government pays seventy percent of the bill already. You too poor from paying a pittance to afford a drink?

“Thousands of dollars is hardly a pittance! Though at this rate, I’m pretty sure you’re costing us more than she is!”

“Oh shut up! That little omega shit’s nothing but a burden!”

“And you're not?! I don’t care if she’s omega, she’s still our flesh and blood!”

“Get off your high horse and just lemme have some fun for once in my goddamn life!”

“For once?! Don’t act like this is new! You held it together at least a little when Homura was here, but soon as she went off to the city, you fell off the goddamn wagon. Pull yourself together, you fucking disgrace!”

“Look who’s talking! The only valuable thing you ever did was get your daddy’s money!”

“I swear to god, if you come home drunk one more time, I will change all the locks and you can go live at the goddamn bar!”

“Oooh, so scary! Like I wanna come home to this bullshit!”

Homura sank to the floor and whimpered into her hands. She knew her parents sometimes argued, but it had always been muffled behind closed doors. Her mind flashed back to the time she was ten and overheard both of them admit they didn’t want an omega child. However, this fight… this was on a scale she’d never seen before. When did this start? Was it when she left for the hospital, or… had they always hated each other this much, behind the bedroom door? Had they always hated _her_ this much?

Homura’s parents continued screaming violently for almost half an hour before her father stormed into the living room and threw himself on the couch in a drunken stupor. Her mother slammed her bedroom door behind her, clicking the lock shut.

Homura crawled over to her bed, tugged a pillow down and weeped as quietly as she could into it.

She had no idea what was going on. She just wanted it to end. This was a nightmare. This had to be a nightmare. She just wanted to wake up any moment in Madoka’s bed.

_Madoka!_

She needed to call her. She needed to know what was going on. She needed a friendly voice like never before.

She reached in her pocket for her cell phone, but it… wasn’t there.

_Of course. Pajamas._

The way she saw it, if this was not a nightmare, she had only one option to save herself: get out of this horrible building, walk the half-hour drive to the train station, and ride back into Mitakihara. She had the money for train fare in her wallet, which she’d left… in her purse.

_Goddamn pajamas._

She took a deep breath. As gingerly as she could, Homura opened up her old dresser, throwing on the first outfit she saw. She shoved Madoka’s pajamas into an old, worn out backpack, along with a sweatshirt and a few pieces of jewelry she’d missed. She then snuck over to her closet and dug out the best walking shoes she could find: a pair of dress flats that she had slightly outgrown. Not daring to sneak around the house in shoes, she clutched them in her hand as she tiptoed in socks.

Approaching the corner of the downstairs hall that led to the kitchen and the living room, Homura peered around the corner to the couch. Her father lay sprawled out, pants haphazardly kicked off. Step by step, she slowly approached her father like she was sneaking up on a bear. At one point, he stirred in his sleep, causing Homura to freeze with terror, but all he did was roll over on his side.

As soon as she was close enough to grasp the leg of his pants, Homura gently tugged them to her. Rooting through the pockets, she found her dad’s wallet.

_Please oh please let there be some money left._

In the bill pocket of her dad’s wallet, she found a single ¥10,000 note.

_Oh my god… Dad, what the hell? I don’t even know if I could break this at a train station…_

She slowly unzipped the coin pocket, finding a couple loose ¥100 coins.

_Whatever. It’s enough. I just gotta go!_

She plucked out the coins, one at a time, and slipped them into her pocket. When she returned the wallet to the floor, however, a loose coin fell out of the bill slot and crashed on the wooden floor with a clatter she thought could wake the dead. Her dad jerked and twisted on the couch. Homura muffled her breathing and tiptoed as fast as she could around the hall corner again. Fortunately, he merely mumbled something about “dumbass waiters” then resumed his droning snore.

Homura slowly sighed the breath she’d held in. As she turned to leave out the front door, she thought about the cordless landline phone in the kitchen. She could call Madoka’s cell phone outside the house, and just leave the phone behind on the stoop. What did she care anymore?

She crept through the kitchen, snatched the phone, and scurried out the front door. After shoving her feet in her shoes, she crouched down in the bushes outside her bedroom and clumsily dialed Madoka’s number.

“C’mon, pick up, pick up, pick up…”

Voicemail. Madoka just had to be a deep sleeper.

“U-um… Madoka-chan? This… this is Homura. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but… I w-woke up at my parents’ house. I’m w-walking… walking back to the train station. B-back to Mitakihara. Back… back to you. Please tell me I didn’t just dream moving to Mitakihara. Please. I need to hear it. I need to know you know me. I need to know you love me. I need to know you exist. I need to know this nightmare isn’t the rest of my life… please… please…” She broke down sobbing into the phone before hanging up a few seconds later.

She shoved the phone onto the welcome mat on the stoop, took a deep breath, and walked off, weeping into the night.


	15. Temptations in the Desert

The sun was first peeking into Madoka’s room when she finally woke up. Her arm groggily sprawled across the other half of her bed, searching for a Homura to cling to, but Homura wasn’t there.

“Nnngh… Homura… chan?”

Madoka dragged herself out of bed to check the bathroom. Empty. The kitchen. Empty. The downstairs bathroom. Empty. The front yard, the garden, the laundry room. Empty, empty, empty.

Madoka’s sense of foreboding increased with every room she didn’t find Homura in. Something was wrong, she just knew it. Upon returning to her room, Madoka noticed Homura’s school uniform and purse were still neatly stowed on her desk.

_Kyubey, do you know where Homura-chan went? Kyubey? Hey… Kyubey?_

Kyubey’s voice did not appear in her mind as it usually did, nor did her own thoughts resonate louder than usual like they did when Kyubey was around. Madoka was rapidly becoming certain something was terribly wrong. She threw herself onto her bed and slid open her phone. There was one voicemail from an unknown number waiting for her.

_From four in the morning? Oh god…_

Madoka opened the voicemail, and immediately Homura’s desperate sobbing echoed in her ear. Her hands began to tremble as she sat transfixed by the message. A giant knot welled up in the pit of her stomach, and she began frantically shaking her hands in midair as she tried to devise a plan.

_Redial! I can redial!_

Madoka furiously tapped the “call back” button, bouncing her legs up and down as she waited for someone to pick up. No one.

_Oh god, oh god, oh god… uhh… maybe I can reverse search the phone number!_

She opened a search engine and punched in the phone number as fast as she could. Even if the results had come up instantly, it would have felt too slow for her. The number seemed to trace back to an Akemi Amane in a rural town over three hundred kilometers from her.

_Three hundred?! Homura-chan… how the hell did you get there?_

Madoka frantically entered some more searches, trying to pinpoint the closest train station to the Akemi household. When she finally settled on the most likely suspect, she shoved Homura’s belongings, her piggy bank, and a couple bottles of water into her bag. She hurriedly scrawled a poor excuse of a note for her parents, claiming she and Homura had gone to her apartment to study (because Homura forgot some of her books), and bolted out the front door.

_Kyubey, you know where Homura-chan went, don’t you? Kyubey! Hey, Kyubey!_

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“Oh hello, Akemi-san,” chirped Kyubey, looming atop a speed limit sign on the highway.

The dawn was just beginning to break, lighting up the sky to Homura’s left. The night had been warm and sticky, and the sun only promised more uncomfortable heat. Homura had stopped crying hours ago, but she had still lost too much water from it. Her feet were numbed with pain, her mouth was dry from panting, and her chest ached, but as soon as she laid eyes on Kyubey, a moment of clarity washed over her.

“You… you did this…” she wheezed.

“I cannot deny that,” replied Kyubey, hopping down to walk beside her.

“Why? Why would you do this to me?”

“Don’t take it personally, Akemi-san. I was merely repaying a pledge of battle with a small wish. A very small wish if you ask me, but-“

“Who would do this to me?”

Kyubey cocked its head at Homura. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Homura turned away, watching the sunrise. She had her suspicions, but she didn’t want to believe they were true. After all, she had just helped save Miki-san’s life barely twelve hours ago.

Kyubey sighed. “She certainly won’t take kindly to you coming back.”

“So, what? I’ve got a magical girl who wants to kill me now?!” Homura cried hoarsely.

“I can’t claim to know Miki-san’s motives. Although, if she wanted, she could have wished you dead when she became a magical girl, so I suspect she merely wants you out of the picture.”

“Great… so it was her…” Homura panted.

“Indeed,” Kyubey replied as it trotted along, unfazed and unblinking. “You can always make a contract, you know. Just wish yourself home, and this whole miserable trek could be over.”

“Each magical girl only gets one wish. I-… I would never waste it to shorten a commute.”

“That is true. I am merely presenting you with opportunities.”

“M-Madoka told me that the context behind a wish impacts your strength as a magical girl. I won’t waste my wish on something I can do myself!”

“That is also true. Again, I am merely here to give you an option.”

They continued on in this manner for several more hours. Any time Homura would stop to catch her breath, stumble briefly, or trip flat on her face, Kyubey would remind her that Mitakihara was only a wish away. Her toes screamed with pain, shoved up inside ill-fitting shoes; her arms were scuffed raw; and her throat burned with the mid-morning heat. However, she refused to waste her wish. The sun was high in the sky when Homura’s tensions finally snapped.

“I won’t make a contract over this! Why are you so intent on pushing it?”

“You are clearly in pain. I’m merely offering a remedy.”

“You put me here! You did this to me in the first place!”

“Miki Sayaka did this, Akemi-san. I merely adjusted the universe to accommodate her wish. Rest assured, I could have easily put you on the direct opposite side of this planet. I could have even put you on another planet analogous to Earth, but this seemed to be in all parties' best interests while still honoring Miki Sayaka’s wish. If you wanted, you could do the same or worse to Miki-san. You could wish for the ability to teleport anywhere you want. You could wish for literally anything. Becoming a magical girl would also allow you to heal yourself repeatedly.”

“Enough! Why do you make contracts anyway? What the hell do you get from us making contracts with you?”

Kyubey blinked. “Why, powerful warriors to combat witches.”

“No way. If that were the case, you wouldn’t grant contracts to people who make petty wishes in the first place. They wouldn’t be worth the investment!”

“Any warrior is better than no warrior.”

“So… so that’s it? We’re just your foot soldiers? Your… cannon fodder?”

“Don’t be so indignant, Akemi-san. We pay you in advance with any miracle of your choosing. That’s a better fare than any terrestrial mercenary could ever hope for.”

“Miracle?! You call what you did to me a miracle? I… H-how can you be so… so heartless?!”

“It is ironic you ask that, because my species is utterly stupefied by your species’ ability to cohabitate with a vast range of emotions. They are purely counterproductive to us, and a sign of profound mental illness in our society.

“E-Enough! I’m not making a contract with you. I’m never making a contract with you! I don’t trust you and I don’t want your ‘help!’ I’m going to get back home on my own two feet. Just… just get out of here!”

Kyubey made a motion similar to shrugging and slunk off in the opposite direction.

Once the sun reached its highest point in the sky, Homura's vista of scratchy shrubs and expansive plains was finally replaced with the town the train station was in. If she had any water left to spare, she'd have wept with joy at the sight of the drab offices and shopping centers dotting the surrounding blocks. People quizzically eyed her as she passed them on the street. Her face was beet red from exhaustion and sunburn, her clothes were torn and dirtied, and she wouldn’t even be surprised if she were leaving a small trail of blood from her feet.

However, when she finally reached the ticket window and dragged herself up the flight of stairs to the practically-deserted train concourse, she was graced by a sight that made every ounce of pain in her body momentarily vanish: Madoka was pacing back and forth in the station, wringing her hands and darting her eyes everywhere. Homura grinned weakly.

Madoka noticed Homura a second after Homura noticed her.

“Homura! Oh my god, Homura!” she screamed, bolting to her and tackling her with a hug. Homura croaked a feeble laugh and slumped into Madoka’s arms.

“We’re gonna get you outta here, baby! I love, I love you, I love you! I’m sorry I didn’t say it more times before this! I love you!” Madoka cupped both of Homura’s cheeks and emphatically pushed their faces together. Tiny crystalline tears dotted the edges of Homura’s eyes as she clung for dear life to the woman she loved.


	16. I Haven't Earned You

Homura smiled as her dry, chapped lips pressed into Madoka’s, but her knees soon began to buckle. Madoka noticed and immediately leapt into caretaker mode. “Okay, dear, let’s just sit you down right here, nice and easy. That’s it. Here, sip this.” She handed Homura one of the water bottles in her backpack. “I’m gonna go buy my ticket, and get us some first aid gear in the convenience store. Just sit here. I’ll be right back! Here’s your phone back, sweetie. You want me to stay on the line with you the whole time I’m gone? I’ll do it!”

Homura smiled, clasping her scratched-up hand around Madoka’s. Hoarsely, she whispered, “That would be fine. I might not be able to talk much though…”

“Honey, you don’t have to say anything! I just want to know you’re safe, and I want you to know I’m still here! Okay, I’m gonna go get my ticket now! Please, don’t push yourself! Just sit there and sip okay? I’ll be _right back_.” Madoka emphasized the last two words with her hands.

She ran off, dialing Homura’s cell phone mid-stride, and proceeded to give her a detailed play-by-play of everywhere she was going and everything she was doing.

“Okay, looks like they’ve got a decent pharmacy section in here. What hurts, baby? Let’s see… we’ll need some ointment… some antibacterial cream…”

“Madoka…”

“Iso alcohol… cotton balls… oh! Bandages! Gotta get some bandages.”

“Madoka…”

“Okay, adhesive or gauze? Oh screw it! Lets just do both. You need some aspirin, dear? I’m gonna go ahead and get you some aspirin. Let’s see… laxatives-“

“Madoka!”

“O-oh! Yes, Homura-chan?”

“Couldn’t you just heal me like you did at the amusement park?”

“Oh… yeah. Right.”

Madoka sheepishly returned all the pharmacy items to the shelves, and instead used her money to buy Homura a feast of convenience store food: refrigerated onigiri and sandwiches, bags of chips, a couple candy bars, fresh fruit, and an ice cold can of barley tea. With each item, she asked Homura’s opinion on the food, and each time, Homura expressed how little she cared what she ate.

Madoka returned with two grocery bags filled to the brim. As soon as she sat down next to Homura, though, her phone buzzed in her hand.

“Oh god, it’s my mom. What do I do?!”

“I-I-I g-guess you should a-answer it?” stuttered Homura.

Madoka hovered over “accept” before opting to press “end.”

“Oh god, she’s gonna be pissed.”

“I-I’m so sorry I got you in this mess, Madoka-chan…” Homura whimpered.

Madoka shook her head, smiling. “I came out here on my own, dear. I’m just so happy to see you safe. I’ll take any punishment to ensure that.”

Before long, the next train heading south arrived in the station. Madoka helped pull Homura back onto her feet, which hurt ten times more after resting a bit. Homura winced with every step she took as they made their way towards the back of the train.

As soon as they found an empty car, Madoka shuffled Homura inside and eased her into a seat. She pulled out her soul gem from her backpack and gingerly slipped off Homura’s shoes. She couldn’t help gasping when she rolled off one of Homura’s bloodied socks: her soles looked like one gigantic blister, and her shoes had shoved her toes into a curled position such that the tips were skinned raw.

“Homura… oh my god…”

“Nnngh… is it bad?”

“How did you manage to stand on these, let alone walk more than a marathon?”

Homura hissed in pain as Madoka rolled the other sock off. “I… I had to get back to you. I c-couldn’t… I couldn’t stay at my p-parents’ house.”

“… Why? What happened, Homura-chan?”

Homura clutched her chest as her parents’ screaming match echoed in her mind. Her gaze drifted into the distance and tears welled up in her eyes.

“U-um, it’s okay! You don’t have to tell me. You’re here now. It’s okay! Um, here. Take a sip.” Madoka unscrewed the top of a water bottle and offered it to Homura. Homura took the bottle and sipped, still in a daze.

“… mk-sn” she mumbled.

“What was that, honey?” Madoka asked as her soul gem glowed against Homura’s feet.

“… Miki-san. She… she wished me away.”

“WHAT?!” Madoka screamed as she bolted upright. The outburst made Homura shrink back and cower in her seat.

“I-… I’m sorry, Homura-chan.” Madoka knelt back down and swept her glowing soul gem across Homura’s scratched and bruised limbs. How… how do you know this?”

“Um… K-Kyubey told me.”

Madoka growled under her breath. “I knew he had something to do with this…”

“It… actually followed me most of today, encouraging me to wish my way home.”

“… What?”

“S-seemed really intent on it too.”

“I mean, I get the temptation… why didn’t you, Homura-chan?”

“I-I… I just thought it’d be a waste to wish on a walk…” a sinking feeling welled up in Homura’s stomach. “Do you… do you think I should have?”

“N-no! I’m just… I’m amazed, honestly. I don’t think I would have been strong enough to resist.”

 “… I’m not so sure. After all, Miki-san totally hates me… I… what if she tries to k-… to k-kill me?”

“Oh, Homura-chan… Sayaka-chan can be jealous, but… but she’s not a murderer.”

“How can I be sure? I… I just don’t know anymore.”

“I’ll protect you! I swear it!”

“I… that’s very kind of you, Madoka-chan, but… I should take care of myself. I’ve been so selfish to have you fight my battles for me. You’ve already saved my life thrice. I can’t keep burdening you…”

Madoka clasped Homura’s hands, her eyes unwaveringly intense. “I became a magical girl to protect people. Homura-chan, I live to protect protect people. To protect you. I… I would die for you!”

Homura’s heart simultaneously skipped a beat and sank in her chest. “I… please don’t. I’m not worth it.”

Madoka’s grip tightened. “You are!” She pulled Homura’s arms down until her mouth was within range to kiss. Homura briefly recoiled in surprise, but then bowed further into Madoka’s face. Madoka reached a hand up to caress her cheek, as her tongue pressed inside Homura’s mouth.

Homura shuddered, but then drew back. She felt filthy again, like she did after her fantasies the night before. “I… I-I can’t, Madoka. I can’t take advantage of you like this…”

Madoka frowned and crawled into Homura’s lap, straddling her legs. “Since when did I say you were taking advantage of me?”

“W-well, you didn’t, b-but-“

“But you just figured you were? Why?”

“W-well… because… y-y’know? I don’t fight my own battles, but I still th-think about your… well, because I still want to… um…”

Madoka leaned in, pressing her lips hard against Homura’s. As she pulled away, a narrow tendril of saliva joined them briefly. Homura blushed furiously and averted her gaze. “I… I-I haven’t earned you.”

“You never had to,” Madoka smirked. A familiar smell began wafting around them. Doubts and insecurities and even lingering pain vanished, prompting Homura to sheepishly take the initiative.

She returned Madoka’s kisses with increasing vigor as she ran her fingers down the length of her spine. Madoka arced her back and pressed her hands against the glass window of the train, pinning Homura between them. Homura used her other hand to squeeze Madoka’s petite breast.

Gasps and moans began echoing across the car as the world melted away. Homura became oblivious to anything that wasn’t Madoka, and Madoka wanted Homura to herself forever. Mouths were united, asses were groped, and panties became soaked.

Homura tugged up on Madoka's shirt, revealing her taut, desperate nipples. She wrapped an arm around the small of Madoka's back and suckled hard. She lighted her tongue over each perky teat, and tugged on her skin with her teeth. Each time she'd release her bite on Madoka's nipples, Madoka would cry out and shudder in her lap. 

Amid her ragged, hungry breaths, Madoka grabbed one of Homura’s hands and pulled it between her legs. “Please,” she growled as she leaned into Homura, nipping at her ear. Homura, too eager to feel reservation anymore, rubbed her fingers against Madoka’s slicked panties. Madoka ground her hips down in time with Homura’s fingers, panting fervently against her neck.

Madoka tugged her panties aside, exposing her sex to the air under her skirt. Homura briefly teased Madoka by running her fingers along the underside of her shaft before plunging a pair of fingers deep inside her. Madoka’s legs squeezed against Homura’s thighs, and she moaned into the side of her neck.

As Homura’s fingers slowly increased in rhythm, Madoka’s breaths became coarser and faster. She clawed her fingernails across Homura’s back, and moaned into the bite marks she was leaving on her shoulders.

“Too rough?” Homura panted. “Faster!” Madoka grunted, shaking her head in the crook of her neck.

Homura obliged, and a few moments later, she felt clenching spasms around her fingers. Madoka’s legs bucked and shuddered against Homura's thighs, and her back arced into a triumphant climax.

After a couple minutes of trembling and flexing, Madoka weakly rolled off of Homura onto the adjacent seat. As she drifted out of her lust-rage, she began taking note of all the superficial injuries she’d left on Homura’s torso.

“Oh geez… s-sorry about that, Homu… ra-chan. I can-… I can heal those too.”

Homura shook her head, though, and leaned back into her scratch marks. “No… I wanna keep ‘em. These are good ones.”

The girls halfheartedly cleaned themselves up. They sat nibbling convenience store food in the afterglow before falling asleep in each other’s arms. Homura just barely woke up enough to hear when they had arrived in Mitakihara. She pulled Madoka up, led her out the door, and sleepily gazed around the busy station. However, she bolted awake when she saw a familiar blue head of hair poking out above most of the travelers.

_Miki-san!_


	17. This is Between You and Me

Sayaka slowly stirred awake late in the morning. She hadn’t gotten into bed until four the night before. She rolled all the way across her oversized bed and groped at her nightstand. As soon as she felt her hand around her phone, she flopped back onto the bed.

11:21. No calls or texts from her parents checking up on her.

She groggily thought back to the night before. Memories flashed through her head like a slideshow of snapshots. Her conversation with Mami. Her walk home with Kyubey. The contract outside her house.

Sayaka bolted upright and squinted at the nightstand, quickly noticing the brilliant blue gold-encrusted jewel resting on it. She held it in her hand, turning the intricately symmetrical gem over and over.

_It’s… it’s real. It really happened…_

She remembered more. She was attacked by a “witch”… then found herself in Mami’s apartment with Madoka and…

_Fucking transfer student._

She gritted her teeth thinking about Homura. Even if she had saved her life yesterday, it didn’t matter. She was actively robbing her of the only stable presence in her life.

The more Sayaka dwelled on her, though she felt a new feeling inside her. A light, gentle tugging in her belly button. She felt… she felt how far away, and in which direction Akemi Homura was.

“She’s still in Japan?! What the fucking hell, Kyubey!? I wished her gone! Not down the goddamn street!”

No response.

“Kyubey! Hey! Dammit!”

Sayaka punched her pillow with all her might, threw herself out of bed and began pacing around her bedroom. Her eyes fell upon the bulletin board over her desk. Photos. Dozens of them. Increasingly faded the further back in time they stretched. Each time, Madoka was together with her in the shot. Throughout the toothy smiles of grade school, the low-key backyard birthday parties, and the awkward foundation-covered pimples of middle school, the two of them had been together.

_I’m not letting that conniving bitch steal her from me._

She whipped out her phone again and began furiously texting Madoka.

 

> Hey, Madoka-chan! Thanks again for last night. Close call, huh? I was just wondering if you wanna hang out today? Maybe finally hit up the arcade.

After a few more minutes of pacing with no answer, Sayaka stomped down the stairs to the immaculate, spacious kitchen. A couple ¥1,000 notes were stuck to the fridge with a magnet, with a note on top of them.

 

 

> Sayaka,
> 
> The maid went ahead and put your breakfast in the fridge. Here’s money for lunch and dinner. Gotta work late again. Sorry, honey!
> 
> XOXO, Mama and Papa

 

“Big shock,” Sayaka grumbled. She pocketed the yen and unceremoniously threw together a peanut butter and banana sandwich, then slunk back upstairs to check on her phone. No response.

She tried calling Madoka directly. Again, no response.

_She already knows. I just know it._

A sinking feeling welled up in Sayaka’s gut. She became increasingly terrified that the wish she had made to desperately salvage her friendship with Madoka was actually serving to jeopardize it.

She nervously rolled her soul gem over and over in her hands. She didn’t know if it was her imagination or not, but the brilliant blue of her gem seemed dimmer than before.

Sayaka focused on Homura again to bring the gentle pulling sensation in her stomach back. Homura was on the move. She was heading back towards Mitakihara. Fast.

“Goddammit! Fucking waste of a wish!”

Homura was moving much too quickly to be returning by car, but she was still at ground-level. There was no doubt about it. She was returning by train.

Sayaka threw on her clothes, stuffed her slightly muddy soul gem in her pocket, and stormed out the front door. She would be ready to greet Homura at the train station. She just prayed Madoka wouldn’t be there as well…

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“Madoka! M-Miki-san is here! What do we do?!”

Madoka was roused from her drowsiness on the train to defensive caution almost instantly. She grabbed Homura’s wrist and pulled her along with the crowd disembarking from the train.

“C’mon, Homura-chan! Maybe we can lose her in the crowd.”

The two small girls darted between passengers, making for the exit. Homura glanced behind her every couple moments, only to see that the blue hair continued to charge directly at them no matter which direction they turned. They hadn’t even made it out of the train terminal before Sayaka was nearly upon them with her long, athletic legs.

“She’s… she’s got us, Madoka-chan!”

“Get behind me, Homura-chan. Now.” Madoka clasped her soul gem in her hand. She certainly didn’t want to fight her oldest friend, but this feud with Homura had gotten way out of hand. As soon as Sayaka came into view, she rushed forward to try to distract Sayaka and possibly disarm her rage.

“Sayaka-chan! Uh, h-hi! What, uh, what are you doing here?”

Sayaka stared stunned at Madoka for a moment, a mix of betrayal and understanding twisting her face.

“Outta the way, Madoka.”

“W-why? Homura-chan’s not here.”

Sayaka raised her eyebrow skeptically. “What makes you say I’m here for transfer student?”

_Dammit._

“Besides, I can fucking see her,” she said, looking past Madoka’s shoulder. “Get out here, transfer. Now.”

Homura nervously peered out from behind the trash can she had taken refuge behind, her eyes wide like a deer in a pair of headlights.

“Can’t you take a goddamn hint and realize when you’re not welco-…”

Madoka stood in between Homura and Sayaka, baring her teeth weakly. Homura’s head peeked out above Madoka, but she shrunk down and cowered behind a trash can when Sayaka darted her eyes to her.

“Sayaka-chan… please…”

“Get outta the way, Madoka. This is between me and transfer student.”

“N-no. I-If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me.”

Sayaka glowered down at Madoka with sullen, bitter eyes. “Yeah. Sure. I get it. She matters more.”

 “You wished her to the other side of the country! That’s… that’s kidnapping! She needed my help!”

Sayaka glanced at Homura, who had moved to cowering behind Madoka. “And a lot of fucking good it did.”

“Sayaka-chan… please… what’s happened to you?”

“Oh, what’s happened to me?! What the fuck happened to you? This is what a decade of friendship means to you, huh? We spend over half of our lives as best friends, and the second some omega pussy comes along, I just get tossed aside? Yeah. I’m totally the villain here.”

Madoka clasped Homura’s hand as she emphatically threw the other hand out to her side. “Sayaka, it’s not a competition! I can have a girlfriend and still have a best friend! I’ve tried to keep you in my life! We still eat lunch together! What about the arcade day we tried to arrange?!”

“And you ditched me at the last second.”

“That’s not Homura’s fault! Don’t blame her for yesterday! She was still holding to our agreed meeting time. I just… Mami-san and I had to track down the witch that captured you.”

Sayaka leaned down so that her face was completely level with Madoka as she replied, “You said witches attack people who are depressed or stressed. I was really looking forward to that arcade. And then you bailed. If you’d just fucking come along in the first place, I wouldn’t have gotten captured. And even if I did, you could have stopped it a hell of a lot faster.”

“I-I-… well-… I-…”

Homura nervously peeked her head out from Madoka’s shoulder. “M-… Madoka-chan couldn’t have known that at the time! She was just trying to keep people safe!”

“You. Stay out of this. This is between Madoka and me now.”

Something in Homura snapped. The stress of the past twenty-four hours came to a head and burst inside her head. She rose to her full height and stood as proudly as she could muster.

“N-no. No! First you say this is between you and me, then when I open my mouth, it’s suddenly between you and Madoka. Make up your mind who you’re mad at, or… or just knock it off!”

Sayaka glared wide-eyed at Homura, as if she couldn’t even believe the audacity of this feckless little shit.

“You’re right… you’re the cause for all of this… if you had never come along, none of this shit would have happened…”

Sayaka pulled out her soul gem and began to move towards Homura.

“S-Sayaka! Stop! P-please, don’t…”

Sayaka refused to listen. She attempted to skirt around Madoka, but Madoka clasped both of Sayaka’s wrists, and the two began to tussle. Sayaka definitely had a size and strength advantage, but Madoka held her own by trying to pull Sayaka to the ground. Amidst the confusion, a shiny blue bauble fell on the ground and onto the tracks.

“My soul gem!” cried Sayaka.

Just then, the station bells began to ding, and an automated voice came over the intercom.

“Attention, passengers. An express train to Tokyo is passing through the station at this time. Please step away from the tracks and stand behind the yellow line, as this train will not be stopping at this location.”


	18. What the Fuck is the Matter with You?

“My soul gem! I need my soul gem back!” Sayaka shoved Madoka away from her and bolted for the tracks.

Madoka slammed into Homura, causing both of them to stumble to the ground, screaming after Sayaka. “Don’t do it, Sayaka! We’ll get it back after the train passes!”

“Fuck that! I’ve sacrificed too much for that thing just to-“ Sayaka was tackled to the ground by a station official, knocking the wind out of her. The train whistle echoed in the distance.

“Don’t be a fool! You have so much to live for!” the official pleaded. Sayaka flailed and kicked under him, to no avail. “Get the- nnf- fuck off me! Nngh! You got it all wrong!”

The train whistle blared again, louder this time. Homura trembled on the floor. The pit of her stomach ached with dread. Madoka scrambled to her feet and hurried to Sayaka’s side. “Sayaka-chan, it’s gonna be okay! It’s not like you’ll die without it!”

“After everything I’ve lost, I might as well be dead if I lose my soul gem!” Sayaka elbowed the station official in the ribs, causing him to reflexively recoil long enough for her to kick him off. As soon as she managed to get to her feet, though, another station official ran up and restrained her by twisting her arms behind her back.

“Please, ma’am, don’t do this!”

The train whistled once more, close enough to cause the sound to rattle the floor and rumble in everyone’s chest.

Sayaka screamed at the top of her lungs in desperation.

The train rocketed past the station, picking the soul gem up in the wind it generated and carrying it a couple hundred yards away.

Sayaka struggled and fought every moment, until suddenly, she just went limp.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but this was for your own good,” the station officials chided soothingly as they relinquished their grip on her. Sayaka crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll.

“Wait a minute… she’s unconscious! Oh god… does anyone know CPR?!”

Madoka was trembling, but raised her hand. The train continued thundering past as Madoka rolled Sayaka onto her back and began giving her chest compressions. Homura squirmed feebly on the floor, completely unsure of what to do with herself. She traded nervous glances with Madoka for only a second before Madoka began giving Sayaka mouth-to-mouth.

“C’mon, Sayaka-chan. Please! Don’t do this! Please! Not like this!” Madoka screamed as she continued her chest compressions.

As the train rolled out of the station, Madoka’s sense of hope seemed to go with it. Tears dotted her eyes as she pleaded with Sayaka, “Please… hate me… hurt me… do anything to me… just don’t go… not like this, Sayaka-chan…”

Madoka broke down, bending over and wailing against Sayaka’s stomach. However, she soon heard the gentle clink of a dense piece of glass rolling up to her.

Sayaka’s soul gem.

Once it rolled close enough to Sayaka, she drew in a gasping breath and coughed up some of Madoka’s spit and tears. Madoka gazed at Sayaka in disbelief as she sat up like nothing had happened.

“… The fuck are you doing, Madoka?”

“Sayaka… thank goodness… but-“ Madoka and Sayaka darted their eyes around in confusion, until they caught sight of Kyubey looming up in the rafters.

_Try to be more careful next time, you two._

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“Well, all your tests came back just fine. As far as we can tell, you’re in perfect health,” the doctor said, flipping through the pages on her clipboard. “You can go as soon as the IV drip finishes, but if you feel unusual at all, please don’t hesitate to come back. And… just between you and me, you might consider this.”

The doctor discretely slipped Sayaka a card with the name and number of a licensed therapist. “Her Japanese is still a little shaky, but she does really good work.”

“Uh… thanks. I’ll, uh… yeah.”

“Well, I need to go check on my other patients, but if you need anything else, just hit the call button on the side of the bed, and a nurse will be with you.”

“Will do, doc. Thanks.”

The doctor smiled as she exited the room. On her way out, however, she was bumped into by a man and woman dressed in high-quality tailored suits. Both of them were distracted by conversations on their phones.

“Oh, I’m so sorry ma’am- What? No, not you Masako. Sorry, go on.”

Sayaka was briefly dumbfounded before mumbling, “M-mom… dad…”

“Sorry, Masako. Just a second,” Sayaka’s father said as he covered the receiver on his phone. “Hey, kiddo. We heard you had a little trouble at the train station.”

“How are you feeling, sweetie? Anything you wanna talk to us about?” Sayaka’s mother continued. “No, Hiro, Sell at ¥30,000, not ¥25,000! We’re trying to make a profit here!”

“I’m uh… I’m fine. No big deal.”

“Well… if you say so, honey,” her father replied, continuing to cover his phone, “but if you wanna talk about anything, just know that we’re always available.”  
  
“Th… thanks Dad, I’ll-“

“Sorry, Masako, I’m back. Yeah, no. Everything’s okay.”

Sayaka sighed. Her mom covered her phone one last time. “Well, we need to get back to work, but I promise we’ll spend some time together tonight. Let us know if anything happens, honey. We’re here for you.”

On their way out, Sayaka’s mother waved to Madoka, who had shrunk back into the corner. “Oh, hi there Madoka-chan. I didn’t see you there. Goodness, you look so mature these days! Seems like just yesterday you were missing half your baby teeth at Sayaka’s seventh birthday party. My, how time flies.”

“O-oh, thank you, Miki-san. It’s nice to see you t-“

“No, Hiro! Not ¥28,500. Not ¥29,000. ¥30,000! ¥30,000!” Sayaka’s mom interjected into the phone as she left the room.

“Geez, I’m kinda surprised they showed up at all,” Sayaka muttered sullenly.

“Oh, c’mon, Sayaka-chan. They really do love you.”

“Sure. With money.”

“Well, they… ehh, well…” Madoka rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Whatever. Get out here, Kyubey. I know you’re here.”

“Ohh, quite perceptive, Miki-san.” Kyubey chimed as it slunk out of the shadows in the bathroom.

Turning to the open hall door, Sayaka called, “Hey, transfer student. You get in here too. You’re kinda permanently tied up in all this shit at this point. Besides, not like Madoka isn’t gonna just tell you everything when we’re done.”

“S-Sayaka-chan, we don’t- that’s not…”

“I-… I honestly know almost nothing about you, Miki-san,” Homura nervously peeped as she crept into the room.

“Fine, whatever. You’re still tied up in this. Close the door behind you.” Homura obeyed. Turning to Kyubey, Sayaka continued, “Now, mind explaining what the fuck happened to me at the train station?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You fell on the train tracks.”

“No… my soul gem did.”

“Don’t you understand, Miki Sayaka? They are one and the same.”

Instantly, the sheer weight of the term _soul gem_ made itself apparent to all three girls. Madoka and Sayaka held out their soul gems in their hands. “Y- you mean… these gems hold our souls?”

“Essentially,” Kyubey remarked.

“But… souls aren’t real,” Madoka insisted, “They’re just a poetic metaphor, right?”

“Well, you can call it whatever you want, but we have found that a tiny cluster of neurons in human brains are the key to keeping their body and mind functioning.”

“Like… the medulla oblongata?”

“Close to it, but not quite. Regardless, destruction of such a tiny cluster of neurons spells doom for human bodies, and even their conscious minds. That’s a tremendous weakness. To do battle with monstrosities such as witches, doesn’t it make sense to protect such a weakness by storing it in an easily tracked, easily guarded case?”

Sayaka threw herself out of her bed, dragging the IV across the room with her as she grabbed Kyubey by the neck. “So… you ripped out part of our brains to turn us into magical girls? And turned our bodies into meat puppets? What the fuck is the matter with you?”

“In all fairness, your bodies are always puppets to your soul. They have no power to move or function without your soul either way. I just relocated your soul to keep it safe.”

Madoka held her soul gem to Kyubey’s face. “We never asked for your help with rearranging our brain! This… this is evil!”

Kyubey sighed calmly, even though Sayaka’s hand was clenched deep into its soft neck. “You humans always react the same way about this information. Soul gems not only relocate your soul, but they spare your body from a substantial amount of pain. Kaname Madoka, how many witches have you fought so far?”

“I… I dunno. Maybe… seven or eight?”

“And in that time, you have certainly endured several blows to your body, have you not?”

“Y-yeah...”

Kyubey gently rested a paw on Madoka’s brilliant pink soul gem, which began to radiate even more at the alien’s touch. Immediately, Madoka gagged in agony, as if all the wind had been knocked out of her mid-breath. She clutched her sides as she collapsed on the floor. Kyubey’s paw was removed from the gem as soon as she fell, but Madoka continued retching and dry-heaving at the reverberating volume of pain she felt. Homura rushed to Madoka’s side, cradling her head gingerly. “Madoka! Are you okay?! What did it do to you?!”

“I simply allowed Madoka to feel the pain her body would have felt had I not relocated her soul into that gem. The soul gem is a mercy. It spares magical girls a crippling amount of pain. With it, they can continue fighting long past the point a normal human would be able to bear. It is your greatest asset, and your ultimate weapon.”

Tears glided down Madoka’s face, her hair disheveled and ragged. Homura helped Madoka sit upright, fighting back tears of rage herself.

“This… isn’t what we asked for,” Sayaka growled through gritted teeth.

“Of course not. You asked for miracles-”

“Yeah, some miracle.” Sayaka interjected as she glanced at Homura.

“-but you cannot deny that the soul gem makes the level of combat asked of magical girls feasible, right Kaname Madoka?”

Madoka glared at Kyubey as her legs tried to still their trembling, but she didn’t say a word.

“Just as I thought," mused Kyubey as it wriggled out of Sayaka's grip. "Now, then, if there are no more questions…”

“Wait a minute…” Homura rose to her feet, staring Kyubey down with quiet indignation. “Why did you save Miki-san? Your species is all about logic. You told me yourself. You wouldn't rescue her out of simple sentimentality.”

Kyubey blinked. “Why, because we need all the help we can get defeating witches, of course.”

“No. I don’t buy it. There’s billions of humans on earth. Most of them would leap at the opportunity to make a miraculous wish.”

Kyubey blinked again and paused a moment. “… Miki Sayaka made a wish, altering the fabric of spacetime, and hadn’t yet defeated a single witch. We are simply trying to make good on our investment.”

Homura glared at Kyubey with the most piercing eyes she could muster. “I don’t buy it.”

Kyubey shrugged as it slunk off. “That is your choice.”


	19. It's Hard to Know Where to Begin

 

“My oh my, this is unexpected. The gang’s all here again.”

Madoka dodged eye contact as she stood in Mami’s doorway. “Can… can we come in Mami-san? We need to talk.”

Mami’s courteousness immediately gave way to concern. “Oh dear. It seems I’m out of the loop.” With a heavy sigh, she continued, “Well, come on in, let me put on the kettle. I just picked up a fresh can of matcha powder this morning.”

Madoka and Homura shuffled into Mami’s apartment, while Sayaka sauntered sullenly behind them. Mami pulled freshly cleaned teacups out of the dishwasher and put the filled kettle on the stove. Coming to sit down with the girls, she felt like she was sinking into an ocean of tension.

“Now, then. Who’s going to fill me in?”

“W-well,” Madoka began, “it’s hard to know where to begin…”

Sayaka heaved an exasperated sigh. “I’m a magical girl now, my wish didn’t matter, and we’re all goddamn zombies. Not that hard, eh Madoka?”

“Woah, woah, woah.” Mami implored, holding up her hands. “I caught that you’re a magical girl now. Honestly, I expected that one, but everything after that, you lost me.”

“She… she kidnapped me,” Homura quietly butted in.

Sayaka rolled her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.”

Homura's voice rose with violent indignation. “Dramatic? I woke up across the country twelve hours ago!”

“And you’re back here now, so get over it.”

“How-… how can you-“

“Girls! Girls…” Mami reached out across the table, stretching an arm towards Sayaka and the other towards Homura. “Let’s just stay calm… and try to get through storytime.”

Homura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Alright. W-well… Miki-san used her wish to send me away. I guess fortunately, I only got teleported to my parents’ house.”

“So you had a sleepover with mommy and daddy,” Sayaka mumbled under her breath.

“… so I wound up walking to the closest train station, which was over over 40 kilometers away.”

“A-and thanks to a message she left on my phone, I figured out where Homura-chan had gone and met her at that train station,” Madoka added, “She was… i-it was rough.”

Mami folded her arms and furrowed her brow as she tried to take everything in. “Alright, and I take it you took the train back into Mitakihara. What happened next?”

“W-well…” Madoka stammered as she fumbled for her words, “U-um… well, Sayaka-chan knew we were coming somehow, and was waiting for us at the Mitakihara station. I scuffled with her briefly before… b-before…”

Madoka began to tremble remembering the overwhelming terror she had felt when Sayaka collapsed.

“My… soul gem wound up getting far away from me and I… died, I guess.”

“You… died? Then how are you… why would that…?”

“M-Mami-san…” Madoka hesitantly stammered, “our… our soul gems are more literal than we thought they were…”

“… What do you mean? Our soul gems are- oh dear god…” The kettle began to whine on the stove, but Mami didn't even notice.

“We’re walking meat corpses…” Sayaka groaned, burying her head in her folded arms on the coffee table.

Mami sat still, transfixed, trying to make sense of everything she was hearing. Homura scrambled to her feet and shut off the sputtering kettle to make herself useful.

“S-so… Mami-san…” Madoka eventually peeped, “W-what do we do now? What… what does this mean?”

Mami stared off between Sayaka and Madoka into an invisible horizon. Tears began to well up at the tip of her eyes, but she swatted them away. Her eyes hardened and she turned back to the girls. “It… it changes nothing. We are still magical girls, and we still have an enemy to fight. The witches will continue to wreak death and destruction no matter what.” Mami slowly turned her eyes toward Sayaka. “Miki-san… I… had anticipated you would make a wish soon, and I was prepared to offer you a spot on our team. We’re stronger together, so if it’s alright with Kaname-san, I… am still willing to offer that spot.”

Madoka glanced toward Sayaka meekly, unable to keep her eyes from fidgeting. “I… Sayaka-chan is my best friend, but… I don’t know if she’ll ever get along with Homura-chan. I-if… if Homura-chan agrees to it.”

All eyes turned to Homura behind the kitchen counter, except for Sayaka, who hadn’t budged her head from resting in her arms. “I… I-I-… I guess. O-o-… okay.”

“Then it’s decided. Miki-san, welcome to the team.”

Sayaka darted her eyes up towards Mami briefly, still refusing to move her head. “I don’t recall anyone asking me if I even wanted to join.”

Mami tried to effect a courteous tone, despite her shock. “O-oh, of course. I’m sorry, Miki-san. Would you like to join our team?”

“… I’ll think about it.”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Sayaka, Madoka, and Homura bowed somberly as they exited Mami’s apartment and headed home. Mami managed a weak smile as she closed the door.

As soon as Mami was alone in her apartment, however, she tugged off her hair ties, allowing her ringlets to dangle limply at her sides. Her fingers slid down across a hologram floating a few centimeters off the wall next to her living room windows, prompting her blinds to mechanically descend. Mami hugged the wall and began to undress as the blinds fell.

Once her windows were closed, she crept over to the china cabinet where she kept her teacups. From one of the bottom-most drawers, she pulled out a shoebox. Opening the shoebox revealed a mess of crumpled-up newspapers from almost a year ago. After fishing around in the shoebox a moment, Mami extracted a half-empty bottle of whiskey and a tumbler and strode back to the bathroom with them.

She started to pour a steaming hot bath, then bustled over to the kitchen for ice spheres. She grabbed three in one hand, but her grip faltered and the ice went rolling all over the kitchen. Mami clutched a hand around the freezer door handle and glanced nervously behind her to her soul gem on the coffee table. Suddenly, a familiar, unwanted voice chimed in behind her.

“It’s really not a big deal, Tomoe Mami. The effective range for soul gems is one hundred meters or so. It would never pose an issue from anywhere in this apartment. It wouldn’t even pose an issue when you go downstairs to drop off trash.”

Mami glared at Kyubey, who was circling her soul gem on the table. "But you lied about it."

"I never lied. I merely omitted."

"A white lie is still a lie."

She grabbed some more ice and clinked it into the glass. As she strode back to the bathroom, she threw off the last of her clothes in the hall. Kyubey clambered through the sleeve of Mami's discarded blouse, musing as it went, "I never understood the utility in these fabrics. You clearly aren't wearing them for warmth or protection..." Mami ignored the creature. 

The water was hot and soothing as it engulfed Mami’s feet and legs. She set the whiskey and the tumbler aside until she was settled in the tub, then promptly poured herself a drink.

“I never understood why humans make themselves more vulnerable and dull their senses when they seek to relax. Shouldn’t your vulnerability prevent you from feeling rested?”

Mami swirled the whiskey around in her glass a few times before taking a sip. “There’s restfulness in being able to be vulnerable. Being in a safe enough position to allow ourselves vulnerability. If you stay hypervigilant every moment of every day, you can never truly feel safe.”

Mami took another sip, then continued her musings. “Ironic, I suppose. Just another silly human problem, like our interest in clothing or our excessive concern for our souls. Perhaps it doesn’t matter to you, but there’s… a lot of importance placed on the soul in human cultures. We care a lot about it.”

“We’ve noticed. And yet, for all humanity’s musing on the soul, it remains a metaphysical preponderance to your species. You can neither detect it nor feel with it.”

“Still, it is sacred to us.”

“Why? Even now, you can’t sense that your soul is in your gem, can you? You are forced to trust that what others say is true.”

Mami’s eye twinged at this jab, but tried to mask it by sipping more whiskey.

“I’ve seen all I want to see of you for now. Go away.”

Kyubey sighed nonchalantly and slunk out the door.

Mami set down her glass and hugged her knees in the water.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Warm spring night air wafted through Mitakihara’s neighborhoods and alleyways. For most of their walk home, Sayaka, Madoka, and Homura carried on in silence. Homura and Madoka trailed behind Sayaka, whose long legs carried her faster than the other two despite ambling sullenly and kicking pebbles.

Finally, a block before they parted ways, Sayaka quietly spoke up.

“Hey… Madoka?”

“Y-yes?”

“Did… did you mean it when you said I’m your best friend?”

“Yes! We’ve been friends for years. I want to always be your friend, even if I have a girlfriend.”

Sayaka twitched, then slowed to a stop.

“Transfer- um, Akemi-san…” Homura jolted to attention. Sayaka scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. “What was your parents’ house like?”

Fresh memories suddenly pounded on Homura’s heart. A sinking feeling welled up inside her.

"It was... awful. Just awful."

"But why? Please, I-... I'd like to know."

Homura fidgeted with her hands and shifted her weight from foot to foot. She glanced to Madoka for a cue, but Madoka's face was just as nervous and unsure as hers.

Avoiding eye contact, she began, “I… I woke up in my bedroom, and M-Madoka wasn’t there. I had no idea where I was for a few minutes. Then… my dad burst through the front door, really really drunk. He and my mom, they... they just kept fighting...“ Homura choked up and began quietly crying.

Madoka gently rested her hand against her back. “It’s okay, dear. You can stop if you want.”

The hum of the street lamps buzzed in between Homura's quiet sobs. Sayaka looked to the other side of the street, holding her arms close for a while before croaking out, “It's... it's fine. I get it. Well… um, sorry… about that…” She wished both girls a good night, and nervously made herself scarce.

Madoka and Homura continued on the last few blocks in silence, save for Homura's quiet sniffling. As Madoka fumbled in her pocket for her keys, Homura peeped up.

“M-Madoka, are you-… how are you doing? I never got a chance to touch base with you after the hospital or Tomoe-san's. I've kinda been monopolizing this whole day."

Madoka sighed and turned back to Homura, a sad smile warming her tired face. “No, you haven't honey. Even if you were, you got spirited halfway across Japan and looked like death when I first saw you. I'd say that earns a little special attention."

Madoka sighed and slumped into Homura's arms. "I’m... I'm rattled. I’m beyond rattled. I... the train ride was amazing. Just, everything about it. Everything else today? Not so much." She clutched the fabric of Homura's blouse. "I don't know how to feel about any of this. I’m honestly too tired to process much right now. I guess I just wanna fall into bed and deal with it in the morning.”

Homura smiled weakly and held Madoka close. Madoka pressed her lips against Homura's neck, then turned back around and opened the door.  
  
Suddenly, the droning screech of the home alarm went off, causing both girls to scream with shock and trip over the threshold.

“Ahhh! What’s going on?!”

“What?!”  
  
“Madoka, how do we turn the alarm off?!”

“What?!”

“I said, how do we turn the alarm off?!”

“What?!”

Junko charged to the front door with the remote control for the alarm. With a click, the blaring siren politely turned off. The girls sat stunned in the doorway as Junko loomed over them with as stern a face as she could manage.

“So, who wants to go first trying to explain where the hell you’ve been all day?”


	20. Are You Allergic to Latex?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which perfect person Kaname Junko risks breaking the fourth wall as she relays useful information to her fans.

Madoka and Homura clutched hands as they cowered in the doorway. There was absolutely no story or excuse they could come up with to explain where they’d been, let alone one that would be remotely more believable than magical girls. All they could manage was an incoherent stammer.

“I- ah, M-Mama-“

“K-K-K-Kaname-san!”

“I just- this isn’t-”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”  
  
Junko allowed the girls to babble on a few more moments before her features finally softened. She heaved an exasperated sigh, then crouched down to hug the girls almost painfully tight.

“Do you two realize how much you made us worry?”

In unison, the girls quietly peeped, “Yes, ma’am.”

Junko pulled back a bit to look her daughter in the eyes.

“Madoka… sweetie. You’ve always been on the level with me. I knew where you were or who you were with. Granted, in this case, who you were with was pretty obvious, but certainly not the where.”

Madoka averted her eyes, chastened. Junko turned her gaze to Homura.

“And Homura-chan, I really, really don’t want to have to fill out a missing persons report for you. I only know your name and phone number. So please don’t make me do that.”

Homura sat up on her knees and bowed deep. “Y-y-yes ma’am.”

“Look, I get it. You’re young. Love is sweet and fast, and seventeen is more than old enough to make your own decisions about sex. But please! If you’re going to go romping off to who-knows-where to get it on, can you _please_ tell us where you’re going?”

The girls looked to each other in confusion. “Y- I… uh- what?”

“Uh, you gonna tell me you _didn’t_ get those from sex?”

Junko pointed to several rosy pink hickies on the side of Madoka’s clavicle and the barely-scabbed scratch marks on the back of Homura’s neck. The girls flushed crimson red all across their face.

“W-well,” Madoka squeaked, “not sex-sex…”

Junko groaned a little and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Okay, well, _degrees_ of sex aside, you’re still ‘sexually active,’” She made finger quotes for the last two words, “and because you are, I just want to cover some basics. But… this isn’t the place for this talk. Tell you what? Go get some water, cool your jets, and meet me in your room in a few minutes.”

The girls nodded fervently and began to scurry up to the bathroom.

Halfway up the stairs, Junko called, “Oh! One question. Homura-chan, are you allergic to latex?”

Homura shook her head, confused.

“Excellent!”

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Madoka splashed water in her face, exclaiming into her towel as she dried off, “Oh my god, what was that?!”

Homura’s face would not lose its brilliant pink blush. She wet a washcloth and dabbed at her face, but she couldn't stop looking down at the floor as she did so. Eventually, she whispered, “I’m so sorry, Madoka-chan. I should’ve asked you to heal my scratches. I just-… they were so-“

Madoka reached out a hand for Homura’s. “No, I… I could have healed my neck too, but I didn’t.” She groaned a little bit before continuing, “Honestly, my mom has probably been itching to have this talk with us since she first met you.”

“I’m sure, I’m sure…” Homura made a sound resembling a mix of whimpering and laughing.

Madoka dragged her feet into her bedroom; her mother wasn’t there yet. She flopped out on her bed, ready to fall asleep on the spot. Homura came back a minute later, slightly less red and still dripping water from her bangs. Sitting down next to Madoka, she slouched forward a moment and took a heaving sigh.

“This day is never gonna end,” Madoka whined into her pillow. Homura laid a hand limply on Madoka’s knee.

Junko came back in a minute later with a small shoebox. She pulled up Madoka’s desk chair, sat down facing the girls, and handed them the box.

“Now then, this is just a little care package from me.”

The girls opened the box to find an assortment of flavored condoms, a bottle of lubrication, and a pair of STI/pregnancy test cards. Homura clasped both hands over her mouth, and Madoka’s face turned as red as her ribbons.

Junko leaned back in her seat, smirking at the girls’ embarrassment. “I know, I know. Scandalous. Alright, just a couple things. The pee cards you can take care of next time you have to go. We don’t expect to find anything; we just wanna check the results and make absolute sure.”  
  
Pulling out a condom and unwrapping it, she continued, “Condoms are super easy to put on, and it only takes a second.” She held two of her left hand fingers together to make a demonstrative shaft. With her other hand, she pinched the tip of the condom.

“See? Pinch the side that looks like a nipple, so you can just unroll it over the shaft, like… so!”

Junko held out her condom-covered fingers for the girls to examine, as their crimson faces peeked out from between their fingers. Junko rolled her eyes and continued.

“Make sure you get it over where you knot. Notice I didn’t pull it tight at the tip. Leave a little pinch loose for when you come.”

“Oh my god, mama…” Madoka whimpered into her palms.

“Hey! This is good stuff! And besides, you two still snuck out, so consider this your punishment. Now, hands down.”

Their hands dutifully lowered, and the girls listened on, completely aghast.

“Now, these should fit you just fine, but if you notice they feel uncomfortably tight, like they’re cutting off your circulation, we’ll just go a size up.”

Homura sheepishly interjected. “W-why… are they all flavored?”

“Well, for oral sex, duh. Trust me, unflavored latex tastes even worse than these artificial flavors. Use them as-is for blowjobs, but if one of you goes down on the other, just cut it long-ways to make a dental dam.”

Madoka cocked her head to one side, a confused expression on her beet red face. “A what?”

“A dental dam.”

“I… I don’t think anyone actually uses those, Mama.”

“That’s the point!” Junko exclaimed, slinging the condom about in her hand.

“O-okay, Mama, just… please…” Madoka groaned.

Junko leaned back, crossing her arms, and smirked. “Alright, I guess that’s enough for this part of the talk.”

Madoka slouched forward until her hands grazed the carpet, and Homura flopped backwards on the bed. “There are parts?!”

Junko chuckled, then swatted her hand dismissively in front of her. “Well, just two. Madoka, you stay put. We’re gonna have us a little alpha talk. Homura, my husband will meet you downstairs in the living room.

Homura rose back up to attention when she was addressed. “Y- yes, Kaname-san.” She stood up, opened the bedroom door, and bowed awkwardly on the way out.

  
♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Homura crept down the stairs to the kitchen as quietly as she could. She didn’t know what to expect, but was apprehensively curious. A stair creaked on the way down, and Tomohisa caught sight of her from the kitchen. He looked up from the cup of coffee he was pouring and waved.

“Aha, Akemi-san. Hello there.”

“O-oh! Sorry to bother you,” Homura bowed halfway down the stairs.

Madoka’s father held up a consoling hand. “Heh, it’s no problem. Um… would you like a little coffee?” He held up the pot of dark roast that he had been fussing over.

“U-um, i-is it decaf? I can’t have too much caffeine, cause of my heart.”

“Oh no, it isn’t! I didn’t even think of that. I’m so sorry.”

“I-it’s okay. Really.” Homura forced a smile as she reached the kitchen counter.

“Hmm. Well, we also have some milk, some OJ, some grape juice …”

 “Oh, milk is just fine.”

Tomohisa poured Homura a glass and led her over to the recessed couch lounge in the living room. They settled in across from one another, completely unsure how to proceed.

“So, I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what to say. I agreed to have a talk with you because Madoka’s mother insisted that it was either me or her, but I’ve never really had to give ‘the talk’ to another omega before.”

Homura rubbed her neck nervously. “O-oh… okay.”

“But, um, if you do have any questions about… well, anything, I can probably help you out.”

“A-actually…” Homura began nervously, “I don’t honestly know that much beyond the in-school sex ed.”

“Oh. Um. Hmm-…”

“I-If I may…” Homura began, “does knotting hurt?”

Tomohisa blushed, but chuckled into his mug. “No, no. Not at all.” Homura breathed a mental sigh of relief.

“Why? I can’t even imagine something that big fitting in there.”

“You’d be surprised what pheromones are capable of.”

Homura paused a moment to sip her milk. “Then… what about b-birth?”

Madoka’s father leaned back in his seat, blushing even more. “Heh, yes. Unfortunately, birth still hurts a ton. I insisted I was going to deliver Madoka _au naturale_ all nine months, but within thirty minutes of going into labor, I was grabbing Junko by her shirt collar and begging her for an epidural.”

“Wow...” Homura mused, focusing intently on Tomohisa.

“Junko was a good sport, though. She only rubbed it in my face for half a second before she was screaming about suing everybody in the building if I didn’t get an epi immediately.”

Homura combed through “C-could… could pheromones help in that moment?”

Tomohisa laughed while taking a sip, causing him to cough a little.

“O-oh! It’s-… I’m sorry, that was probably a dumb question.” Homura whimpered.

“No, no. You’re really okay,” Tomohisa held up one hand as he finished coughing. “I just wasn’t expecting that question then. That idea didn’t cross my mind till I was in labor, at which point the doctor had to give me the bad news that omegas in labor are generally far too focused on the pain for them to feel any effects from pheromones.”

“Oh, great…” Homura looked down to her milk, and took a sip. Her mind flashed back to the times she had been intimate with Madoka. The assuaged fear, the soothed pain, the vanishing doubt. A conundrum occurred to her.

“… K-Kaname-san, with pheromones, how do you know your feelings are your own?”

“…What?”

“Sorry! N-nothing. Forget I asked.”

The omegas continued sipping their drinks in awkward silence for another few moments, before unceremoniously parting ways again.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Junko replaced the office chair at the desk and sat down next to her daughter on the bed. “Now then, kiddo. This conversation I know less about how to navigate. I guess let’s just start at the beginning and go from there.”

“O-okay.” Madoka fidgeted in her seat. Junko began to squirm as well as she tried to think of the least awkward phrasings for her questions.

“So, first and foremost, have you, uhh... knotted her yet?”

“N-no! Really, we haven’t done it!”

“O-okay, okay. That’s outta the way. Moving on.” Junko took a deep breath. “So, obviously, alphas have special glands. I assume they’ve at least… played a role so far?”

Madoka sheepishly nodded in confirmation, avoiding eye contact with her mother.

 “Right, okay. Well, in that case, I just wanna make sure you understand consent, and how those glands can impact it.”

“I-I already know that you shouldn’t wait until getting revved up to get consent, cause the pheromones cause omegas to really want, er… d-doing it.”

Junko couldn’t help a small chuckle. “Basically, yeah. More accurately, it increases sensitivity, dulls pain, and calms the inhibition region of the brain. So, have you been making sure Homura-chan wants it before you start to feel all hot and bothered?”

“Y-yes! I mean, I’m pretty sure. She seemed to make it perfectly clear before I started…”

“How do you mean, honey?”

“L-like, I guess she’s been kinda taking a bit of the initiative…” Madoka mumbled.

Junko chuckled. “Yeah, they can do that. Sometimes you get ‘em started, and they just take off.” She made a swooping motion with her hand, smirking.

Madoka covered her face with her hands. “Ohh, Mama. I don’t wanna picture that with you and Dad!”

Junko rolled her eyes, “Then don’t picture it. Jeez!”

She stretched out her arms behind her, leaning against them. “Anyway, that sounds okay for now, but there’s a big difference between “seems like she wants it” and “expressly wants it.” Don’t be afraid to be a dork and just be overt with asking, even if it’s something lame like, ‘Akemi Homura, do you consent to sexy fun times with me?’”

Madoka finally giggled for the first time all day, relieving some of the tension in her face. “I’m pretty sure she’d lose interest immediately if I said something that lame.”

Junko slyly winked at her daughter. “Trust me, if they want it, one lame phrase won’t stifle that. And touching base like that helps make sure you’re all on board for what’s to come.”

Homura timidly knocked on the door. “U-um, I think we’re done.”

“Whaaat?” chided Junko. “Tomokins, did you really talk with her?!”

“Y-yes! We covered all the big stuff!”

Junko grumbled, but turned back to face the girls on her way out.

“Alright, that’s enough torture for now. You two can go ahead and get into bed. Have a good night!”

“G-good night…” the still-blushing girls called in unison.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

Once Junko had shut the door, Homura flopped face-first onto the bed next to Madoka.

“Was that a labyrinth? Cause I am very seriously considering the idea that a witch has turned your parents into puppets in a sadistic humiliation game.”

Madoka giggled again, and lay down next to her girlfriend. “I’m so, so, so sorry. I’m guessing it was just as mortifying as my session?”

“Well, are you completely terrified of intimacy right now?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Both girls laughed into their pillows.

“It’s kind of a shame,” Homura sighed, “I was kinda hoping for some more information. My parents relied on the school system to teach me everything, so I feel a little out of the loop.”

“W-well… it might be awkward, but maybe we could find a time to ask Mami-san. She’s an omega _and_ a girl. It’ll probably be easier with a friend instead of… my dad.” Madoka covered her face with her palm.

“W-well… maybe…” Homura pondered.

The girls made small talk for barely 30 seconds more before they were nodding off. Homura jerked herself awake as she was falling asleep, terrified that she was going to wake up across the country or on another planet, but Madoka simply wrapped her arms around her and held tight.

Homura leaned in towards Madoka’s ear. “Think we need to put on a condom for this too?”

Both girls giggled. Homura rolled over to kiss Madoka's cheek, then nestled into her embrace.

 


	21. I Don't Want Anything Bad to Happen to Them

“I can’t believe you made me do that!” Tomohisa groaned into his pillow.

Junko snickered as she continued to brush her hair on the bed. “Oh, lighten up. We’ll all live. Besides, it was fun for me and informative for them. Don’t tell me you’re not a fan of edutainment?”

Tomohisa grumbled to himself. “it _was_ a proactive punishment, even for you… but why did we have to talk to Akemi-san?”

“If she’s dating Madoka’s, she’s essentially part of the family.”

“But she’s _not_ part of the family. She’s not our kid.” Tomohisa sat up in bed and looked his wife in the eyes. “Junko, we’ve barely known her a week.”

Junko scoffed, but set down her hairbrush. “Well… how else are we gonna make sure Homura is-… that Madoka’s not-…”

“Stop.”

“-taking advantage of her.”

“No.”

“It’s a possibility we have to consider.”

“Stop it! Our daughter is not a rapist!” Tomohisa hissed.

Junko covered her face with her palm. “I don’t think she is either! But it’s just a possibility we have to check into. But Homura-chan confirmed that she’s giving consent, right?”

“O-oh, well, actually-“

“What? She’s not?!”

“N-no. I… never asked her.”

Junko rubbed her forehead. “But that was the whole point of the one-on-ones!”

“It wasn’t necessary to ask!”

“You can’t know that until you ask!” Junko implored.

“Well, if you want to know so bad, then you ask her. I think we’re crossing a threshold here that we seriously shouldn’t.”

Tomohisa wrapped himself in his comforter and rolled to face away from Junko. Junko opened her mouth, but then closed it and slipped down under the covers, facing away.

After a minute, Tomohisa whispered, “… I’m sorry.”

Junko clutched her arms, clenching and relaxing her grip. “Me too. I just… I don’t want anything bad to happen to them…”

“I know…” Tomohisa sighed.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

The following morning, Homura awoke with a start. She expected some new catastrophe, but the sun greeted her calmly, as if yesterday had just been another day. The Sunday morning light glowed on Madoka’s sleeping face. Homura crept out from under Madoka’s outstretched arm and tiptoed downstairs.

She noticed Junko sitting in a chair from the kitchen table, facing out towards the backyard. From the bottom stair, Homura quietly peeped, “B-beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

The only sound Junko made to greet her was a gigantic snore as she shifted in her sleep.

Homura froze dead in her tracks. She didn’t want to be rude by waking her. But… what was she doing out here in the first place?

As gingerly as she could, she turned herself around and began climbing back up the stairs. Half-way up, she tripped, causing her to hit the wooden planks with a clatter. She slid down another three steps before she caught herself.

“Huh? Wha? Wuzzat?!” Junko grunted awake and began looking around frantically.

Homura’s mind darted back to the night before, when she was creeping around her drunkard father. She scrambled to her feet to try to hide, but lost her footing again and slipped another few stairs. Her knees were now swollen, aching points.

“Ahh! Homura-chan! Hold on, don’t move!” Junko had gotten enough of her senses about her to get on her feet and dash over to the stairwell.

Homura wheeled around to face Junko, panic burning in her eyes. “I-I-I’m sorry, K-Kaname-san! I was just going to get a drink of water but then I saw you so I was going to go back upstairs and I slipped and-

“H-hey! Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay.” Junko cooed in her most soothing voice. “No one’s mad, no one’s in trouble. You’re fine.”

Junko sat down a step below Homura, who was busy rubbing her knees and wincing. “Mind if I take a look?”

“O-oh, no! Go a-ahead.” Homura rolled up her pajama pant legs, blushing.

Junko gently kneaded her thumb into different spots on Homura’s knee. “Does it hurt when I do… this?”

Homura hissed with pain while nodding her head.

“Well, you didn’t scream, so it’s not broken. I’m thinking it’s gonna bruise, but that’s about it. Let’s get you some ice.”

Junko helped Homura to her feet and led her by the hand to the recessed couches in the living room. As soon as Junko set up Homura in one of the corners with a pillow to slightly elevate her legs, she bustled off to the kitchen to make ice packs.

“You sleep okay, Homura-chan?” Junko called over the pouring sink.

“O-Oh! Yes. Very well, th-thank you.”

Homura’s mind wandered as her panic subsided. She thought back to the night before. The haphazard answers Madoka’s father gave. The mild sense of disappointment they left her with at the end.

“Here you go, sweetie. Two ice packs. And I got you that water you wanted,” Junko chimed, handing off an ice cold glass of water to Homura.

Homura took a miniscule sip as she considered her words, “Kaname-san, I… have a question.”

"Kay, shoot."

“How… how do you know your feelings are your own?”

The kitchen clock ticked a few times before Junko shook her head and spoke up. “I’m sorry, what?”

“W-well, sorry if the window of opportunity has passed, but… I-I was just wondering how omegas can have free will or claim to make their own choices when alphas can make them do what they want…”

Junko stumbled back a step then flopped down onto the ottoman.  “ _Wow_. Um, okay. Coming outta the gate a little strong there.”

“S-sorry! I understand it’s a weird question, so-“

“No no, it’s okay, really. Umm… okay, well for starters, it’s not mind control. It’s just a few well-documented changes to the nervous system.”

“But… isn’t the brain part of the nervous system? That still sounds like mind control.”

“Well, hey now, just because it affects the nervous system doesn’t mean it affects the brain. That’s like saying that a scratch on your finger imperils your heart. Now granted, one of those changes to the nervous system _is_ in the brain, but it’s well-studied and understood to not be a form of control.”

Homura fidgeted in her seat. “W-what is it?”

“Alpha pheromones calm the inhibition regions of the brain. Fear, self-control, social decorum. They all weaken. They’re still your own desires; you’re just more willing to pursue them, despite emotional or social barriers.

Homura’s mind flashed back to the train the day before. She didn’t care how hellish her day had been. She didn’t care who saw her in the moment. Her cheeks flushed vermillion.

“The other effects are diminished pain and amplified sensitivity, but those happen outside the brain in sensory neurons.”

“Hm.” Homura leaned back in her seat, shifting the frigid packs of ice around on her knees. The amusement park flashed through her mind. She became so ravenous that Madoka had to push her off. But if Madoka had been controlling her, she wouldn't have needed to push her off...

Junko bit her lip for a moment, glancing back in the direction of her and Tomohisa’s bedroom, then asked, “Homura-chan, sweetie, why do you want to know about this stuff? Are you… worried you’re not in control, during-…”

“O-Oh! No, ma’am, I’m really not worried about that! I was just asking because I was curious.”

“Okay… good. Just checking.”

Both women mulled about awkwardly for a moment, before Junko resumed, “Look, the human body is never an island all its own. It’s constantly bombarded by chemicals and organisms, both inside and out. That’s the way all life works. All our emotions are caused by the addition and subtraction of a couple key chemicals in the brain. Varying amounts of two other chemicals determine if our body grows boobs or not. Our entire digestive tract is lined with bacteria that we can’t survive without. Pheromones are just another influence on the body among millions.”

Homura cocked her head to one side while she considered Junko’s logic. “Okay… well then, why do some alphas go with another alpha, or two omegas go together? Shouldn’t pheromones not affect them?”

“Mmm, no. They still work, but... Homura-chan, you do realize pheromones are just a sex thing, right? They don’t decide everything about a relationship.”

Homura leaned her head against the back of the couch, looking to the ceiling. “I don’t know. For some reason, they just feel really… important to me.”

Junko patted Homura’s knee. “Well, that’s-“

“Homura-chan? H-Homura-chan!?” Madoka suddenly cried from her bedroom.

“She’s down here, sweetie!” Junko called.

Madoka burst out of her bedroom and leaned over the stair railing. “Ah! Homura-chan! Thank goodness.”

As Madoka bounded down the stairs to the living room, Junko leaned in towards Homura and whispered, “We can continue this again sometime, if you want.”

Homura glanced down to her glass of water and smiled. “… I’d like that.”

Madoka dashed through the kitchen then down the couple of stairs to the lounge. It was only then that she managed to catch a good look at the ice packs on Homura’s knees.

“H-… Homura-chan! Your legs!”

Homura smiled up at Madoka. “I-I’m fine. Just a little bruising.

Madoka gingerly lifted an ice pack to check the damage. “What happened?”

Homura blushed and averted her eyes.

“Just a little slip on the stairs.” Junko replied.

“Wh-what? Just now? How come I didn’t hear?”

“Madoka, honey,” Junko chuckled, “you could sleep through an earthquake. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure you've done that twice.”

Madoka huffed with indignation. “I- ah- what? N-no I haven’t!”

“No, it’s true!” Junko covered her mouth to stifle her laughter, “I had to carry you downstairs myself, and you didn’t wake up at all!”

Madoka fumed pitifully while her girlfriend and mother shared a chuckle at her expense.

Junko rose and stretched from side to side. “Well, I should go ahead and get Tatsuya up and start breakfast. Madoka, keep an eye on Homura-chan, alright?”

“Mm, okay.”

Junko headed out of the room, cooing “Tatsuya, Taaatsuya” as she headed for his room. As soon as her mother was out of view, Madoka threw her arms around Homura as tight as she could.

“I-… I woke up, a-and you weren’t there again. A-and I thought-… I didn’t know what to think.”

Homura clutched Madoka’s arms; it was all she could do in her position. Madoka fought back sniffles as she pressed her head into the back of Homura’s shoulder.

“Please… please don’t disappear.”

Homura’s grip tightened. “I won’t. In fact, I think I have an idea.”


	22. Preparation

Sayaka slowly pulled herself awake later in the morning. The sunlight had already migrated off her bed and onto the floor. Propping herself up on her elbow, Sayaka rubbed her eyes, still swollen from crying herself to sleep. Her parents hadn’t been home to hear.

She pulled the covers back over her eyes and dragged her soul gem off the table. Its ruddy blue glow radiated off Sayaka’s face and pillows. She stared at it for almost an hour before acknowledging Kyubey, lurking in the corner of her room.

“You tricked us.”

“Omission is not deception, Miki Sayaka.”

Sayaka curled up tighter under her blanket. “Bullshit. A white lie is still a lie.”

“Mm. So I’ve heard.” Kyubey leapt from shelf to shelf, between faded, dusty little league trophies.

“I never asked to be made into a zombie,” Sayaka growled as she peered out from the blanket.

“No, you wished for a miracle. One small, poorly-worded wish.”

Sayaka was upon Kyubey in a heartbeat. Her thumbs pressed deep into where its larynx presumably was. Despite its coarsened breath, Kyubey continued speaking just as calmly via telepathy.

“It’s pointless to take out your frustration on me, Sayaka. That will not change your fate.”

“Shut up!” Sayaka bared her teeth and clenched with all the strength in her body. Suddenly, Kyubey’s neck bent backwards with a crack, and the creature dangled limply in Sayaka’s hands.

Almost instantly, the rage drained from Sayaka’s face and gave way to terror. She recoiled from the soft body as it crumpled to the ground. “Oh god. Oh god. It’s dead. It’s really dead. What do I do? Oh god. Does that mean I’m going to die too?! Did… did I just kill all magical girls?!”

“I told you it’s pointless.” Kyubey’s voice reverberated throughout Sayaka’s mind.

A second Kyubey leapt through the window and promptly began devouring the already-decaying corpse.

Sayaka watched in horror until she felt dizzy and sank to her knees. Her stomach lurched and she leaned over the floor, waiting to vomit. Her body felt like it was burning up, but eventually cooled. Sayaka sat back up and slowly regained her faculties.

Kyubey sighed as it hopped up to Sayaka’s desk. “You cannot alter your fate, nor would it have done so for me to tell you sooner.”

Sayaka grabbed the creature by the scruff of the neck and threw it out the window, hearing it land a moment later with a clatter. She kneeled over her bed, and began bawling into her covers.

A few minutes later, when her tears had calmed to a whimper, Sayaka heard her phone buzz on her nightstand. Limply holding it in her palm, she read the text she had been sent:

> “Sayaka-chan, Mami-san wants us all 2 meet @ the church on 21st and 4th 4 a witch hunt abt 1 hr from now (13:00), if u wanna come!
> 
> ~Madoka~”

Sayaka wiped the tears out of her eyes, took a deep breath, and lightly smacked her cheeks a few times. Reaching out her hand to her soul gem, it transformed into a brilliant blue beam of light that coalesced around her finger as a ring.

Sayaka deadbolted her window and swept for lingering Kyubeys before rushing out the door.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“Okay, Homura-chan! I sent Sayaka-chan the text. No telling if she’ll show up or not. Now to just send Mami-san the reply and we can go.”

“Mm, got it.” Homura called as she there on a pink plaid overshirt in Madoka’s closet.

“H-Homura-chan…” Madoka stood near the closet door. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I mean, it’s gonna be dangerous.”

Homura fidgeted with her slightly-oversized sleeve cuffs while she rummaged through old boxes in Madoka’s closet. “I… I think so. I want to help you, and this will make sure that everyone stays safe no matter what.”

“Homura… chan…”

“Besides,” Homura said as she pulled out a plastic toy sword from one of the boxes, “this is much better than waiting to see if you’re okay.”

“Or waiting to see if _you’re_ okay.” Madoka clasped her hands around Homura’s shoulders. Homura tensed up momentarily, then slumped back against Madoka.

“I just-… I want to help you, e-even if I’m too cowardly to make a wish right now.”

Madoka slid her hands down Homura’s arms, resting them on her hands. “But you’re not. This is an incredibly brave thing you’re doing, Homura-chan, and I promise I’ll protect you.”

Madoka glanced down and tapped on the toy sword in Homura’s hand. “That looks good. Just stick it in the backpack for now.”

“A-are you sure? This thing looks like it couldn’t even cut butter.”

“It’s perfect. Trust me.” Homura shrugged before swinging her backpack around on her shoulder and stuffing the toy inside.

The girls hugged each other tight before dashing down the stairs and heading out the front door. However, when Madoka pulled open the front door, the alarm began blaring at them again.

“Oh god, not this again!”

“What?!”

“Madoka, where does your mom keep that remote control?!”

“What?!”

Junko slid into the foyer with her socks, clicking the alarm off as she slowed to a stop.

“So,” she began, crossing her arms, “when you two got in massive trouble for sneaking out yesterday, who decided that it would be an even better idea to do it again today?”

Homura trembled in place, while Madoka pointed a guilty finger at herself, then Homura, then herself again.

Junko sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Look, please don’t make me have to pull teeth to know where you’re going. I won’t be mad, even if you’re going out to have sex.”

“B-b-b-but K-Kaname-san,” Homura stammered, “w-we aren’t going out to-“ Junko held up her hands to stop her. “I don’t need to know whether you are or not. I just need to know you’re prepared if you do. So! Where are you going”

“U-um, we’re meeting our friend Tomoe-san at the church down the street from Sayaka’s house.”

“Do you have your phones with you?”

Both girls fervently nodded and pulled their phones out of their pockets as proof.

“And condoms?”

“Wh-what? B-but Mama,” Madoka pleaded, “we’re not even doing that!”

“I hear you, and I just want you to be prepared just in case.”

The girls’ faces were strawberry red. “M-Mama! We’re not-“

“Upstairs, Madoka. Now.”

Madoka darted her eyes back and forth from Junko to Homura. Homura averted her gaze towards a potted plant by the door, and Junko’s stare never faltered once. Eventually, with a scoff, Madoka ran up the stairs.

Junko slumped down onto one of the stairs. Homura snuck a glance at her. She saw anger in Junko’s eyes, but more than anything, she saw sadness. As she heard Madoka darting down the upstairs hall, she pulled herself up and put her confident face back on.

“Alright, Mama. I got three. Is that enough?”

Junko nodded. “Three is plenty, honey. Just don’t stick them in your wallet. It’ll damage the latex over time.”

“Okay, sure.” Madoka screwed her blushing head straight forward as she walked down the stairs past Junko. She took Homura by the hand and headed for the door.

“Madoka!” Junko called as Madoka stood in the threshold. Madoka paused a moment, then turned back to Junko.

“Have a good time. Really.” Junko flicked a ¥500 coin towards the door. It hit the floor with a clatter, but rolled up to Madoka’s feet. “Have a pastry or something on me.”

Madoka sighed and smiled as she bent down to pick up the coin. “Thanks, Mama.”

Homura bowed deep before clicking the door shut. Junko sat back down on the stairs, disabled the alarm assigned to Madoka, and slouched forward in her seat.

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

“So once we’re in the labyrinth, I’ll keep low and try to not get hit by anything.”

“Mm, that’s the idea. My shield shouldn’t cost me any magic if it doesn’t have to absorb any damage.”

“Right, and we can protect Kyubey at the same time with the shield, so we don’t lose the source of our wishes.”

“Speaking of which, where is Kyubey? You think it’d show up the second we even mentioned wishing.”

Madoka and Homura waited nervously at a crosswalk two blocks away from the church. Each second took forever, waiting for the light to change. The girls were still twenty minutes early for the meeting time Mami requested, but the anticipation was killing them.

The light finally changed, and Madoka jogged through the intersection. Homura picked up her walking pace to keep up, but Madoka suddenly stopped on the other side, giving her time to catch up. Madoka looked around, as if she was searching for something.

“M-… Madoka? What is-“

“Ohh, Akemi-san is coming along too? Hmm, I wonder…” Kyubey’s cunning voice echoed in their minds.

“Never mind that. What were you about to tell me?” Madoka thought.

“You need to get here as soon as you can! Miki-san is already fighting the witch, but she’s almost certainly losing!”

“What?!”

“Kyubey, where’s the entrance to the labyrinth?”

“The statue just outside the front doors! Hurry up!”

“I’m on my way!” She turned around to Homura. “Hey, let me see that toy sword I had you bring.”

“Huh? O-oh, yes!” Homura threw open her backpack and pulled the toy sword out as fast as she could.

“Here, lemme show you the trick Mami taught me.” With a brilliant flash of rosy light, Madoka transformed the weapon before Homura’s eyes. The sword was just as light as the hollow plastic toy before, but this sword was clearly made of some sort of metal, sharpened to a point. The handle sprouted seedlings from underneath, and bloomed into a flowering wooden hilt.

Homura’s jaw dropped as she examined all corners of her weapon. “Madoka…”

“And here. One more.” Madoka held out her hand towards Homura’s chest. A brilliant pink light traveled from the tips of her fingers to Homura’s sternum, before radiating outwards into a star-shaped bubble that enveloped Homura. Homura took a step forward, and the shield moved in tandem.

“Kay, gotta go! See you in there” Madoka sprinted towards the church as fast as she could, leaving Homura behind.

“B-but Madoka!” Homura called, “shouldn’t we call Tomoe-san!”

“Good idea!” Madoka yelled from the other end of the block. “You can take care of that, right? Thanks honey!”

“No, I-… I don’t have her number…” Homura’s voice withered to silence as Madoka ran further and further ahead.


	23. Ave Maria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT [August 20, 2015]: Edited the homily to be less of a Southern Baptist sermon and more like a proper Catholic homily. Still takes its dark turn. Just leads into it more... Catholic-y.
> 
> I promise I'm working on 24. ;u;
> 
> EDIT [December 23, 2015]: Changed cryptic Sayaka nonsense at the end of the chapter to work better with next chapter.

Homura finally reached the front entrance of the Catholic church, lungs on fire and legs aching. Memories of her childhood in private school flashed through her mind.

A granite statue of Mary rose above the flowering landscape outside the church, reaching nearly as tall as the massive oaken doors nearby. Broad stone hands obscured her grief-stricken face.

Homura looked closer. Just under Mary’s veiled head, she saw a brilliantly glowing symbol.

_The labyrinth!_

She leaned her massive sword against the statue and scrambled up Mary’s knee. Standing on her tiptoes, she examined the mark. It looked like a magic rune from a fantasy game, with a red stained glass star floating just over it.

_Madoka’s in there right now, fighting the witch. I have to be brave for her._

Homura took a deep breath, steeled herself, and rested a trembling hand on the symbol.

Homura tried again. And again. She smacked the rune, traced her finger around it, and even made the sign of the cross over it. Nothing worked.

“ _The witch doesn’t want you in there, Akemi-san_.” Kyubey’s voice chimed in her brain.

Homura darted her eyes around and caught sight of the creature looming above her on the top of Mary’s head.

“W-what do you mean?!”

“ _You’re just a human_ ,” Kyubey explained, “ _You can’t just force your way inside the labyrinth like a magical girl. Witches only allow people into their domain if they want you in there._ ”

“… If they’re hunting you.” Homura whimpered.

Kyubey's tail patiently swept from side to side.

Homura clenched up in place, her whole body trembling. “N-no… that can’t be. M-Madoka… Madoka needs me in there.”

“ _No, she doesn’t_.” Kyubey sighed. “ _Your sword will only kill the weakest of familiars, and your shield would only absorb the weakest of attacks. Humans are sitting ducks inside a labyrinth. Besides, you can just as easily make your wish from out here if the need arises._ ”

“My wish? You… knew?”

“ _Not until a few moments ago, but I’ve seen this trick pulled enough times to know it when I see it._ ”

Homura clenched her fists against the draping granite fabric on Mary’s legs.

_Tomoe-san! I can still find Tomoe-san’s number! I just need to find a phonebook._

She paused a moment.

“They… still make phonebooks, right?”

Kyubey shrugged.

Carefully dismounting from the statue, Homura grabbed her sword and crept to the massive oak doors leading inside. Kyubey didn’t follow.

The first thing she noticed about the church was that it was packed. Dozens of cars sat in neat rows in the parking lot, but she had yet to see a single person.

Homura slowly pushed open one of the doors, causing it to creak and echo through the narthex. Bouquets of pastel yellow chrysanthemums and white lilies decorated the entire room.

_A funeral?_

Peering through a stained glass window, Homura saw into the nave. A priest was at the altar, but he wasn’t moving. His shoulders were slouched over, and his arms dangled at his sides. Homura looked across the packed pews of churchgoers, and saw that they were also slouching forward in their seats.

_Are they… dead, Kyubey? Kyubey!_

No answer.

Homura huffed and watched on for a few more moments before deciding they weren’t about to move. Creaking open the second set of doors, she gingerly crept into the nave. Apart from Homura, stillness permeated the room.

Creeping around a pew, she examined their faces. The worshipers were calm, presumably sleeping. Pressing a trembling hand to one of their cheeks, Homura concluded they were alive.

_They seem safe enough. They’ll be fine as long as the witch dies. Gotta find that phone._

Crouching as low as she could, Homura crept around the outer edge of the nave towards a back hall. Just as she was passing the last set of pews, though, the entire congregation rose in unison. Homura shrieked at the top of her lungs, but no one even seemed to hear her.

Together, they recited the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, and the priest stepped forward to deliver a haunting sermon.

“My brothers and sisters, why do I refer to you as my brothers and sisters? Because of our unity, our unity through Christ. And Christ gave dignity and worth to all. He traveled with the tax collectors, the fishermen, the lepers, the lame, even the prostitutes. He loved us all. And that is why he died for us. Not just for the Israelites, but for us all. He loved us all. Why, then, did the war have to end this way? Surely Hiroshima and Nagasaki were no Sodom and Gomorrah. Surely they did not deserve such a fate. Why would Jesus allow this to happen if He loves us all? Was it His Father's will that we be smote? Was it the cruel machinations of mankind and science gone awry?”

The rotund priest waited for an answer. Weeping echoed from several unseen sources in the crowd.

“No. No, my friends. It was not their will. And if it was not their will, it was the work of a demon. It was the vanity and the treachery and the stupidity of one selfish little girl. The blood of thousands upon thousands rests on her hands, and we will make sure that the Lord never forgives her for it. We will ensure that even after the radiation dissipates thousands of years from now, she will endure, unforgiven and worthless.”

“Amen,” the crowd replied.

Homura backed away through the entire Homily, but when she reached the back door, she knocked into a tall candelabrum. Red and black candles clattered to the worn carpet.

The priest stopped mid-sentence and charged at her, screaming in a woman’s voice that seemed to echo from behind him. 

“No! Stop that! Sister will be very cross! Stop, please!”

Homura screamed and held up her jagged sword to defend herself. But just before the priest fell upon it, he and the rest of the congregation lost consciousness again. Between strides, he crumpled forward on the ground.

Without wasting even a second, Homura scrambled to her feet, hurriedly fixed the candelabrum, and stamped out the tiny fire starting on the carpet. She threw the back door open, slammed it behind her, and bolted down the hall.

When she finally rounded a corner, Homura slumped against the wall, panting and gasping. Looking around, she saw a row of doors in the hallway, some open and some not. Clutching her side, she walked as briskly as she could down the hall.

The first door was a janitor’s closet. No phone, let alone phone book. The second door was a vacant classroom, the walls completely littered with finger paint masterpieces and posters listing the numbers up through twenty. Again, no phone. Finally, she found an administrative office, but the door wouldn't budge. Homura fumbled in place a moment, considering her options, before remembering she was holding a gigantic sword. She clutched the nearly-weightless weapon with both hands and took a deep breath.

_Sorry, Church!_

With a hefty swing, Homura bisected the door from the top down, as well as some of the cinderblocks and ceiling above it. Her hand effortlessly pushed open the piece of door still attached to the hinges, and she entered the office.

A phone rested on the desk, but there was no phonebook in sight. Homura scoured the cabinets and drawers, and finally found a dust-covered copy stuffed underneath the desk. Blowing the dust off of the cover, Homura noticed in big letters across the front:

"Find people on the go! Visit our website to find people using your computer or mobile device!"

Homura smacked her forehead against the phonebook, then pulled out her phone. “Why didn’t you tell me you could do that?!" she yelled into it.

She spread the book across the desk and flipped through until she found the number for Tomoe Mami. Her fingers trembled as she dialed her number. The other line only rang once before going to voicemail.

“What?! Why would your phone be off now?!” Homura screamed as she angrily shook her phone.

“ _Her phone’s not off; it’s simply out of range for you to call_ ,” Kyubey chimed from the doorway.

“Kyubey! Where have you been?”

“ _Informing Tomoe-san of our little crisis_ ,” the creature idly lapped at its paw. “ _She’s already fighting in the labyrinth_.”

Homura groaned into her sword hilt. “Why didn’t you tell me you were doing that?”

“Because this was the best way to keep you occupied while the magical girls combat the witch. You are tremendously vulnerable inside a labyrinth, but you insist on making adventures for yourself."

Homura clenched the hilt of her sword. "You just... let me run around chasing a false lead?" 

"Yes. If you become a magical girl, your place will be on the battlefield. Until then, you're a liability on it. If one of the magical girls dies, you can wish them back to life from relative safety out here."

Homura scoffed and ran past Kyubey out of the room. Retracing her steps, she peeked her head through the door to the nave. The thralls were strewn limply across the pew in front of them or on the floor. They looked unconscious. She didn't take time to check, though, and ran to the front exit as fast as her scrawny legs would carry her.

As she threw the massive oaken door open, she saw Sayaka walking away from the church in a hurry, still in her cerulean magical girl clothes.

"Oh, um... M-Miki-san! How'd the fight go?"

Sayaka wheeled around in an instant, revealing the blood splattered across her face and the tears slowly washing it away. She pulled her cutlass from her scabbard and screamed, tackling Homura in a single lunge. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" 

Homura's skull thumped against the pavement. Her ears rang and her vision blurred, but she could feel Sayaka pressing the tip of her sword against her throat.

In the muffled distance, Madoka cried out and Mami barked some ordering commands. Sayaka held tense a moment before retracting her sword, standing up, and sprinting into the twilight.

Madoka rushed to Homura's side. "Homura-chan! Homura-chan, are you okay?!"

Homura clutched a hand to the spot where the sword had rested. She could still feel its icy cool talon pressing against her neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: posting this on the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. Creeeeepyyyyyy


	24. How'd the Fight Go?

As Sayaka arrived at the church, she slowed to a jog and held out her hand. The silver ring on her finger evaporated into blue light and coalesced as a dingy blue soul gem in her hand. Whipping it in all directions, she tried to get a bead on the witch's magic pattern. 

"What do you intend to accomplish fighting this witch alone?" Kyubey's voice echoed in her mind.

"Get away from me!" Sayaka flailed her hands around her head, trying to cast out the voice.

Kyubey leapt into view atop the roof of the church. "You may not believe me, but I do have your best interests at heart."

"Bullshit."

Kyubey sat still a moment, its tail swishing back and forth patiently. "Why are you doing this?"

"... I don't want to join Tomoe-san's little club as the pathetic rookie. I'm gonna prove myself and enter on equal terms."

"That's tremendously illogical," the alien chided.

"Shut up! I can't lose to Madoka! I-... I can't lose Madoka." Sayaka whimpered.

"You're not making any sense today." Kyubey sighed, then leapt from the roof to the shoulder of a massive statue of Mary. "The labyrinth entrance is right over here. Again, I highly recommend waiting for the other girls. This is a very old witch. It has lots of experience."

"I don't care. I'm gonna beat the shit out of it." 

With a wave of her soul gem, the labyrinth opened up before her, drawing Sayaka and Kyubey inside.

The labyrinth was bright. Incredibly bright. Sayaka was temporarily blinded upon entering. Kyubey scouted ahead, evidently unfazed by the luminescence. 

" _It looks like the witch hasn't noticed us yet, Sayaka_ ," the alien thought aloud. " _We should move quickly and quietly._ "

"Nnngh. Be right- shit! Be right with you." Sayaka growled as she stumbled to her feet.

As her eyes adjusted to the light, Sayaka saw shadows surrounding them. Barren trees, stripped down to the trunks formed a haphazard forest behind her, and in front lay a massive, solid-black flatland. In fact, everything she saw looked black against the blinding white of the sky. Sayaka felt like she could see for miles, but distance was difficult to pinpoint with only shadows to guide her. Opting for the flatland, she drew her saber and crept forward, one foot at a time. 

As she slowly tread across the ground, her foot slipped a couple times on loose rubble, but Sayaka thought nothing of it. It was only when her foot kicked a squeaking doll in the darkness that she grew curious.

She lowered herself to the ground to see if she could notice anything about the terrain. As soon as her head reached the floor, she noticed spots of red in front of her. Trying her best to focus in the light, she realized it was blood caked onto the mangled face of a corpse. Sayaka scrambled back from the body, hitting into a charred skeleton behind her.

She leapt to her feet, trying her hardest not to scream, and darted her eyes around. Corpses littered the streets, which had seemed to flourish in detail since she  crouched down. Blackened housing frames, reduced to cinders and posts, were arranged in neat little boroughs in all directions. Tiny specks of crimson dotted the land as far as she could see, revealing the contours of endless bodies and skeletons. 

"Oh my god," Sayaka whispered. Straining her ears, she could hear gurgled, wheezing breaths a short ways ahead. She instinctively crept towards the sound.

_"Careful, Sayaka. This is a labyrinth._ " Kyubey cautioned.

" _I know!_ " As she came up on the gasping figure, it was obvious it wasn't human. Blood trickled down a gaping wound in its torso, leading to its three remaining legs.

"Oh shit... it's a dog..." Sayaka whispered as she moved to stroke its face.

" _Sayaka!_ "

The dog suddenly began flailing wildly. Chalky black foam poured from its mouth. Its jaw wrenched forward, snapping and snarling at the intruders. With a clumsy downward thrust, Sayaka quickly impaled the beast's neck, but the dog continued flailing, even as the sword tore up its throat. The beast only lay still after she impaled it twice more, in the heart and the head.

Sayaka panted heavily. Her hands trembled as she replaced her sword in its scabbard. Hot summer air hung about, heavy and still, which only amplified the putrid smell of blood.

Craning her neck around, she finally spotted some manner of landmark. As she got closer, she realized it was the remnants of a church. The steeple had been knocked over, and now leaned upside down against the church walls. If she strained her ears, she could just barely make out the sound of crying.

Crouching low, Sayaka inched towards the ruined chapel.

" _Careful, this is certainly a trap._ "

" _Oh, you think?"_ Sayaka telepathically scoffed, " _I've seen enough horror movies to know crying girl equals trap._ "

Sayaka reached the church and huddled just outside the front door. Peering around the threshold, she saw a shapeless mass hunched over on the floor. It looked like a person covered by a massive shroud, praying to a brilliant red stained glass star floating over the altar.

" _I-... I think that's the witch in there!"_ Sayaka thought. " _I can jump it and take it out in one go."_

" _Don't be a fool!_ " Kyubey retorted, " _The witch definitely knows we're here. This is a trap!"_

" _Well, what am I supposed to do?! Just sit here and wait for everyone else to get here?!"_ Sayaka darted her eyes about nervously. 

_"That's what you were supposed to do in the first place!"_

Sayaka fumed a moment, gripping her hilt.

" _Look, let me go back out of the labyrinth."_  Kyubey leapt down from Sayaka's shoulder. _"None of the other magical girls are within range of my telepathy from here, but if I leave, I can track one down quickly and get her here to help you."_

_"Fuck that. The whole point of me coming in here was to get the jump on the witch before they got here."_

_"You will not kill this witch on your own, Miki Sayaka. I'll say that plainly. Your best chance of survival is to wait for reinforcements."_

" _You can go find them if you want. I'll be killing a witch_ _."_ Sayaka steadied her blade as she stood up. Kyubey wasted no time, opening a portal out of the labyrinth next to itself and leaping through.

Sayaka took a deep breath, rounded the corner, and lunged at the amorphous form, piercing it in what was presumably the head. The huddled mass crumpled forward, and blood gushed from the wound. Sayaka relinquished her sword, leaving it inside the creature. She reached behind her and drew two more swords from under her cape, and thrust them into the witch as well. Sword after sword, she pierced the witch from every angle.

By the time she withdrew, the nebulous shape was a human-sized pincushion. The witch teetered weakly, causing the swords stuck in its body to clink and clatter.  Sayaka leapt backward and waited for the witch to retaliate, but it didn't move at all. The church remained deathly still. With a sweep of her cloak, Sayaka recalled all of her swords. They retracted from the witch at once, and vanished into her cape. Only then did the shroud covering the form fall away, revealing a massive antique bomb slouching to one side. The metal folded in sagging rolls as blood seeped out of the circuitry.

"Fuck!" Sayaka leapt out the church door and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her, which, as she discovered, was incredibly fast. A brilliant flash of white light flared behind her, nearly blinding her again, but she kept her footing effortlessly. In fact, she seemed to glide across the battlefield more than run. 

Sayaka bolted across the city in a matter of seconds, barely outpacing the massive detonation behind her. Before she knew it, she was on the far end of the city, a dozen kilometers from the church, watching a gigantic mushroom cloud consume the sky from a bordering foothill. 

The bomb's shockwave quickly caught up to her, however, and slammed her in the chest. Sayaka was thrown backwards and hit the ground with a thunk. Her head rang with pain and her vision blurred, but with a crescendo of light from the dirty blue gem on her finger, her wounds evaporated.

Rolling onto her feet, Sayaka drew her sword and prepared for the witch's next salvo. Red lightning began to crackle and spark within the mushroom cloud. Sayaka moved to leap at the cloud, but fell flat on her face. Something was grabbing her ankles. Charred skeletons, with fragments of clothes clinging to their bones, were rising from the chalky black ground and clutching at her legs. Sayaka flailed her legs wildly and slashed at the skeletons. Their bones snapped with ease, but more bodies seeped out of the ground to hold her back.

Sayaka bolted down the foothill, slashing and kicking at the bodies grasping for her ankles. As soon as she found an opening she leapt at the crackling red mushroom cloud. She swept away a chunk of cloud with a mighty slash, revealing part of the same stained glass star from the church, only much larger.

Sayaka leapt off a glyph she laid out in midair, lunging for the star, but pitch black tentacles seeped out from it, swatting her aside. As Sayaka plummeted to the ground, she threw a sword towards the star's core, but that too was easily deflected. The tentacles retaliated, chasing Sayaka as she fell. Sayaka drew another sword and hacked at every tentacle she could. However, more and more kept oozing out of the great star in the sky. She was getting overwhelmed. 

Suddenly, a shower of bright pink light punched through a cluster of tentacles.

"Sayaka-chan! Are you okay?!" Madoka called from above. Sayaka looked up just in time to see her firing a salvo of arrows from a fluffy pink cloud.

"Get them off me!" Sayaka cast another glyph just before hitting the ground, and leapt sideways to escape the charging tendrils. The heaping mass of pitch crashed into the inky black surface. Madoka tried to provide cover fire for Sayaka, but endless tentacles replaced those she shot down. 

As quickly as she could, Sayaka rushed to higher ground to escape the witch. She glided over the city ruins, catching glimpses of the mangled bodies still grasping for her. 

Madoka turned her focus to the witch, lurking in what was left of the mushroom cloud. She drew her arrows out of thin air and charged her shots for maximum spread. After a furious cascade, a few of her arrows shattered a arm of the witch's star, drawing all of its attention immediately.

The pitch black tendrils chasing Sayaka swung around with ferocious speed towards the other intruder. Madoka was blindsided and went careening towards a mountain on the edge of town.

"Shit!" Sayaka charged after the witch as fast as she could, leaping between multiple glyphs every second.

Madoka cast another fluffy pink cloud under her feet to stop herself before crashing into the mountain, but looked up just in time to see the witch charging right for her.

Hundreds of seeping black tendrils slammed Madoka into the mountain face. Half her skeleton shattered instantly. Her body screamed with pain, even as her soul gem worked to mend her breaking bones. What breath hadn't been instantly knocked out of her was now being squeezed out. The pitch was coalescing around her, crushing her body.

Suddenly, a blue beam of light exploded through her vision, and she was being carried away from the witch. 

Sayaka skidded to a stop at the base of one of the mountains, before abruptly lowering Madoka to the ground. Madoka struggled to keep her footing, clutching at her ribs as they finished healing. "C'mon, get on your cloud thing! The ground is- ah shit!"

Sayaka began slashing rapidly at the bony hands reaching from the ground again. Behind her, Madoka frantically summoned a new cloud under her feet, but pitch black arms grabbed for her ankles, keeping her from taking off.

"Madoka! Shit! Hold on!" Sayaka kicked and flailed in vain trying to turn around and get Madoka loose, but every tattered limb she carved up was instantly replaced. 

"It's okay! Just a sec!" Madoka called. She shot an arrow directly up into the sky, which split and scattered into a million tiny points of light. The tiny specks floated in the sky only a second before Madoka swung her hands in a downward arc, sending the lights hurtling down in a staggered shower. Pink light beams crashed into the ground all around the girls, decimating the skeletons faster than they could spawn.

"Okay, that's got it!" Madoka screamed. She took off as quickly as she could on her cloud, while Sayaka glyphed directly upwards.

As soon as the girls were in the air, seeping black tendrils charged for them again. Madoka fled as fast as her cloud could move, while Sayaka made dozens of tiny glyphs to keep up at Madoka's pace. "We gotta shut it down fast!"

"Well, how the hell do we do that?!" Madoka screamed.

"I have an idea! Can you charge a super-big shot from far away? I'll distract it!"

"Y-yeah!"

"Okay, but don't fire it till I say so!"

With a nod of her head, Madoka bolted for the cover of the nearest mountain to hover behind, while Sayaka suddenly changed directions and glyphed towards the witch, bursting and weaving around black tentacles as thick as oak trees. Madoka's shot began charging quickly at first, then became slower and slower the larger the arrow became. By the time Sayaka had finished a lap around the city, Madoka held a pink star-shaped comet almost as big as herself nocked in her bow. In an enormous dash, Sayaka bolted across a quarter of the city to right in front of Madoka's comet.

"S-Sayaka-chan!" Madoka gasped. The tentacles were bearing down on them fast.

"Wait for it!" Sayaka screamed. Madoka anxiously shifted as the bone-crushing appendages swung across city blocks in seconds, aiming for her. Sayaka cast a glyph between her feet and the comet, before readying her saber to lunge.

"Now!" 

Madoka fired just before the witch spiked her into the ground. The comet rocketed towards the witch, and Sayaka glyphed off the comet. She crashed through the dead center of the red star with ferocious speed, and the comet followed up with a devastating explosion.

As the glass shattered into a million jagged points, so too did the landscape around them. The mountains shattered like porcelain and the wastelands evaporated into the blinding brightness. Sayaka fell screaming into the light before crashing into the shoulder of a massive statue of Mary that appeared out of nowhere. It was pitch black like everything else, with arms outstretched as far as they could reach. In her hands she held a torch, adorned with the red star. And kneeling on Mary's wrists was a hooded figure absorbed in prayer. 

Sayaka pulled herself up onto her knees and looked down the length of the statue's arms. Madoka lay motionless near Mary's elbow. Tendrils began to seep from the hunched figure, heading straight for her lifeless friend.

"Don't you touch her!" Sayaka screamed. She drew two sabers from her cloak and charged in a bolt of blue lightning. The tendrils moved for her but Sayaka tore through them with ease. She slammed one of her sabers into the witch's temple and the other into her heart. She withdrew and struck again, slicing and chopping and gnashing and ripping.

"I... TOLD... YOU... NOT... TO... TOUCH... HER!!" she howled between swings. Sayaka didn't stop hacking until the labyrinth evaporated and the dim light of sunset on the church courtyard returned. She panted and coughed as she tugged her swords out of the dirt. 

"Madoka? ... Madoka!?" Sayaka darted her eyes around for Madoka, when she finally spotted her face-down in the street. "Oh, fuck. Madoka!" She scrambled over and carried Madoka onto the grass before any traffic came by. She wasn't breathing, and her frilly pink tutu was slicked with blood.

"C'mon, Madoka. Don't do this to me. What's wrong?!" Her pitiful attempt at CPR did nothing, sending Sayaka into a panic. She buried her face in her bloody hands and began to sob.

Just then, Madoka took a gasping breath, wincing at the pain it caused her. "Madoka! What happened?! Are you okay?"

"Do make sure to check for the soul gem next time you find an unconscious magical girl," Mami snapped behind Sayaka. She stormed down the sidewalk, holding Madoka's soul gem gently in her hand. "You left her soul sitting out in the road, just waiting to get run over." Sayaka anxiously scratched at her arms.

Madoka propped herself up on an elbow, but pain overwhelmed her and forced her back to the ground. "Nnnngh, Mami-san, why aren't my wounds healing anymore?" she wheezed.

"This is why." Mami held up the soul gem she picked up. It was barely pink at all anymore, instead filled with a cloudy black miasma even worse than Sayaka's. "Miki-san forced you to use so much magic and heal through so much damage that you went through almost everything you have in that one fight."

"W-w-w-what happens now?" Madoka whispered, eyes wide with terror.

"Nothing. We're not going to find out," Mami declared as she held the witch's grief seed against Madoka's gem.

"What the?! Hey! Where'd you get that?!"

"The street as well, Miki-san. It was painfully obvious. And if you don't agree that Kaname-san needs the grief seed most immediately, you are an even bigger idiot than I already think you are," said Mami in her most deadpan tone.

As magic poured into the soul gem, the cloudy miasma was pulled into the grief seed. Madoka's ribs began to fix themselves, and her breathing was no longer hoarse and ragged. The superficial wounds across her face and chest healed in a flash, and Madoka crawled onto her feet feeling better in seconds.

"Th-thank you Mami-san," she whimpered.

"Don't mention it, dear," Mami said as pleasantly as she could muster, given the circumstances. "And you!" she snapped at Sayaka as she tossed her what was left of the grief seed, "Take that as your severance and get the hell out of here."

"W-what?"

An ornate silver musket materialized in Mami's hands, already aimed at the grimy blue soul gem on Sayaka's belly."We have no use for a team member who can't function as a team. I don't care what you do or where you go. I just need you out of my face before I shoot you," Mami growled through gritted teeth.

"... Fine." Sayaka bolted upright. "Yeah, sure. I get it. Fine, I'm gone." She stormed off, gritting her teeth and digging her fingernails into her fists.

As she passed the main church entrance, Homura suddenly showed up on the scene, asking how the fight had gone.

Sayaka lost it. All the bottled-up rage in her snapped. She screamed at the top of her lungs and pounced on Homura to cut her throat. 

"Homura-chan!" Madoka screamed as she and Mami rushed to the commotion. "Drop her!" Mami shouted, cocking her rifle at Sayaka. 

Sayaka wanted desperately to slice Homura's neck open, but found it shockingly difficult to actually deliver the killing stroke. No matter how much she wanted it, Sayaka couldn't bring herself to do it. After a few seconds, Sayaka rose, retracted her scabbard, and bolted off, howling into the dusk.

After wandering Mitakihara for hours, Sayaka found herself sobbing weakly in the middle of the night at the train station. Her light blue hoodie was rough and stained, the sleeves saturated with tears and mucus. She sat still, hugging her knees. Time had stopped moving for her hours ago. She just sat empty, broken, waiting to die.

Eventually, a pair of clunky boots walked up and stopped in front of her. After a moment, Sayaka looked up. A girl with a long mane of fiery red hair was standing over her.

"Hey... you okay?"


	25. Let's Get You Settled

The red haired girl waited for Sayaka to say something, but she just continued to gaze up lifelessly.

"Well, I'll take your silence to mean you're not okay. Anything... I can do?"

Sayaka looked away, hugging her knees tighter. A gentle drizzle pattered against the roof while the air hung heavy and still around them.

"Anything... you need to get out?" she prodded after a moment. Sayaka simply buried her face in her knees.

The girl was getting irritated. "Okay, you know what? I can sense you're a magical girl and I assume you can sense I'm one too. I'm trying to meet you halfway here. It's not nice to ignore your elders..." Sayaka's weak and muffled sobbing resumed.

The new girl groaned as she flopped down on the seat next to Sayaka and pulled out a bag of chips from her pocket. "Whatever. I'm just sticking around a while to make sure you don't kill yourself." She ripped the bag open and began grabbing chip after chip.

"... I should, though..." Sayaka mumbled.

"Bullshit," the redhead said flatly as she ate another chip, "no one should ever kill themselves." Sayaka sniffled and wiped her nose on her pant leg. 

"What do you think you should kill yourself over?" the girl said with a huff.

"I-I dunno. I don't remember..." muttered Sayaka.

"Huh?! What kind of an answer is that?" the new girl exclaimed.

"I... I just see little snapshots. Glimmers. I... I had a wish, and-"

"What did you wish for?"

"I don't know... it was a stupid wish..." Sayaka slid her feet off the bench and slumped forward. "I don't even remember what was worth wishing-"

The fierce redhead scowled. "Let me see your soul gem!"

Sayaka feebly held out her hand, and in a magnificent flash of blue light, her ring transformed to a teardrop-shaped gem. Her acquaintance gasped. It was blue, just barely, dark as the deepest ocean. 

"O-oh. Oh god. We need to get you a grief seed right now!" With a commanding flick of her wrist, the ring on the new girl's finger changed to a brilliant red gem. "Hang on, lemme get a bead on something."

Sayaka whimpered pitifully behind the new girl, who swung around. "What?"

With a sniffle, Sayaka pulled a slightly cracked grief seed from her other pocket.

"Are you kidding me?! You've had a grief seed this whole time?!" the girl shouted, clenching her fists.

Turning to face away, Sayaka slowly lifted her hand to offer the grief seed. "Take it. You deserve it more."

"Oh for Chrissakes," the girl exclaimed. She grabbed both of Sayaka's wrists and pushed them together.

"H-hey! Stop!" Sayaka protested weakly. She struggled, but her captor's grip tightened painfully.

"Ow ow ow!" she hissed.

The inky blackness consuming the soul gem seeped out until the grief seed crumbled inward and shattered. Specks of blue light began to shimmer under the shadows in Sayaka's gem.

The girl huffed, finally relinquishing her grip. Sayaka wrenched her arms back and examined her wrists. They were bright red, and she wondered if they were going to bruise. 

"I swear," the girl insisted, folding her arms. "I've got no time to deal with self-pitying twerps."

"I-... Look, I'm sorry. It's been a long day. A long week..."

"Everybody on earth has had a long day, okay?"

"No. N-not like this..." Sayaka clutched at her sleeves. "I... did horrible things. Monstrous things..."

"Uhh... what?"

"And no matter what I tried, it only made things worse..."

The redhead folded her arms. "Like...?"

"And I blamed poor transfer student for all of it..."

"I- Shit, girl. What did you do?!" she snapped.

"I-... I-..." Sayaka broke down into heaving, moaning sobs.

"W-woah, okay. Hey, stop crying." The girl shifted in place, unsure what to do. After a minute, she awkwardly patted her back. "Uhh... there there."

Sayaka only cried harder and harder, wailing into her knees. The girl glanced around, then sat down next to Sayaka and gently pushed her head into her lap.

"Shhh, you're okay. Kyoko's gotcha. Just... just please stop crying."

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

"W-w-what are we gonna do, Tomoe-san?!"

"I'm not sure. Let me consider our options."

"B-b-b-but s-she's g-g-gonna k-k-kill me!"

"Akemi-san, please."

Homura sat inconsolable on the couch in Mami's apartment, while Madoka tried in vain to comfort her. Mami chopped some meat and vegetables on the kitchen counter.

"Here, Homura-chan," Madoka said as she eased her girlfriend's head into her lap. "Just try to breathe."

Homura laid her head on Madoka, but couldn't stop her trembling. No matter what, she couldn't shake the sensation of Sayaka's icy cold saber against her throat.

"If nothing else," Mami began as she sliced up some mushrooms, "it would be best if you two stayed here tonight."

"Huh?"

"Well, we have a magical girl who, as far as we know, wants to kill Akemi-san."

Homura sobbed quietly under her breath. Madoka cooed as she stroked her fingers through Homura's hair.

"It'd be best if we stick together as much as possible until we can get a better grip on the situation."

"I don't think that is going to be necessary," Kyubey's voice suddenly resonated in all the girls' brains, "at least not tonight."

"Oh, it's you again," Mami said coolly while sliding the mushrooms onto a frying pan. "I told you not to come back unless it's an emergency."

Kyubey blinked. "It might be to you."

Mami stopped chopping and looked up.

"Sayaka is in rather bad shape. She's spending the night with Sakura Kyoko." 

Mami dropped the chopping board into the skillet. Homura jumped in surprise, but Madoka soothed her back down.

"Are you okay, Mami-san?" called Madoka.

"I-... I'm fine..." Mami grabbed an oven mitt and fished the cutting board out. "What did you say, Kyubey?"

"Sakura Kyoko made contact with Miki Sayaka at Mitakihara Train Station about half an hour ago. She made Sayaka use the grief seed you gave her, then began escorting her towards her current residence."

Mami stood over the counter, her hands clenching and relaxing. "What's she doing in Mitakihara?"

"She still lives in Kazamino," Kyubey explained, "but there's been a slowdown of witch activity over there recently. I suspect she's roaming for grief seeds."

"M-Mami-san? Who's this Sakura Kyoko?" Madoka nervously peeped.

"Huh!? O-oh, she's..."  Mami sighed, "I guess she was my student."

"You had students before me?"

"Just Sakura-san. We had a... disagreement about a year ago. We haven't spoken since."

"Oh. So this is bad?"

"I'm really not sure, it's been a long time." Mami bent down and rested her elbows on the counter. "But for the moment, there are too many variables. It'll be safer if you stay here tonight."

"Yeah..." Madoka solemnly nodded.

"No! W-we can't!" Homura suddenly exclaimed. Madoka and Mami both jumped in turn.

"Oh, so you have been aware of what we're saying..." sighed Mami.

Homura sat upright. "Madoka, we can't stay here unless we call your mom! She still thinks we're at the church! If we don't call her soon, she'll probably break down the door looking for you."

"Oh god, you're right." Madoka whimpered. "Here, I'm calling her now."

Madoka pulled out her phone and speed dialed her mother. Mami returned to fiddling over the skillet. "... Hey mom. Yes, Homura-chan's right here. Yes, we're still with Tomoe-san. We went to her apartment. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Unh-unh. W-well, we were wondering if we could maybe spend the night over here. Uh-huh. Uh-huh... okay. No... I get it. Can... can we at least stay for dinner, I guess? Kay... bye."

"No good?" Mami frowned. Madoka shook her head. "I'm sorry. Mama says she can't sign off of a sleepover for me until she meets you."

Mami chuckled weakly. "I suppose I can see where she's coming from. That's a fair precaution."

"However," Madoka continued, turning to Homura, "she said she's not your mother, Homura-chan, so she can't make decisions for you. If you wanna stay here tonight, she says that's entirely up to you."

Homura fidgeted in her seat. "W-w-well... if you think I'll be safer here tonight... Oh! But my books! My uniform! It's all back at my apartment. I need it for school tomorrow!"

"W-well..." Mami began, "in all honesty, I was considering taking a sick day from school tomorrow. This weekend was so eventful that I never even thought about all my homework. I wouldn't blame either of you if you also took a day off."

A wave of relief washed over Homura. "R-really?"

Mami nodded. "It'll be more productive for me to work through the time that I would be in school, worrying about not having my assignments. We'll walk over to your house first thing in the morning to get your schoolwork, Akemi-san."

Homura leaned back into Madoka's arms again. "Thank you."

"It's no problem," Mami assured her. "Now then, let's get you settled." 

 

♥ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ♥

 

"C'mon, let's get you settled," Kyoko sighed, guiding Sayaka over the threshold. "Hang on right there, lemme get the light," she said as she ducked around a corner. The room was suddenly illuminated, revealing a cramped, disheveled apartment.

"Just grab a seat on the couch," she said while kicking off her boots, "I'll get us some food."

Sayaka dragged herself to the couch while Kyoko squeezed around a stack of boxes near the bathroom and grabbed an electric kettle resting atop the toilet. She filled it at the faucet, then set it to boil.

"What flavor ramen you like?" She called to Sayaka.

"Doesn't matter," she responded lifelessly.

"Oh c'mon, gimme something to work with," Kyoko grumbled. She pulled open the cabinet embedded behind her bathroom mirror, revealing nearly a dozen packs of ramen, each a different color. She grabbed one from the bottom and tossed its contents into a nice china bowl next to the kettle.

Kyoko squeezed around the hallway boxes once more before stopping at them and tugging out a gigantic crocheted blanket, easily big enough for three people. She dragged it next to the couch before plopping down next to Sayaka. She grabbed her handheld game console off the table, kicked her feet up onto the table in front of the couch, and began playing.

Sayaka dragged her eyes about the room while Kyoko's handheld made little beeps and dings. The apartment looked old underneath the clutter. Antique china cabinets rested around the room holding countless dusty treasures. Based on what little she could see, the kitchen looked tremendously cluttered. The table in front of the couch was littered with empty snack food containers, stacks of manga, and dozens of handheld game cartridges. In fact, the only bare patch of table was the one occupied by Kyoko's feet.

"O-oh, hey...  _Mercury Project_ 13."

"Yeah, good eye," Kyoko muttered, not looking up from her game. "That volume just dropped yesterday."

"I... I knew that. I was looking forward to it. Then I-... Then I-..."

Sayaka's words caught up in her throat as she broke into squeaking sobs again.

"Oh. Oh god." Kyoko paused her game, but nervously fumbled the console in her hands. "H-hey, c'mon. It's not so bad... whatever it is." Sayaka just continued to sniffle and whimper.

Finally, Kyoko thought to drape the comforter over her crying guest. Sayaka pulled the massive quilt around her, muffling her sobs into the fibers. 

Kyoko awkwardly tried to return to her game, but she turned the volume off and leaned against Sayaka. For several minutes, the only sounds in the room were the ticking clock on the wall, the clack of buttons, and sniffling from under the blanket.

The electric kettle began to beep from the bathroom. Kyoko hopped up and fidgeted in place a moment, nervous to leave the crying girl's side. "I-I-I'm gonna go get the ramen, but I'll be right back."

After a minute of rushed fumbling in the bathroom, Kyoko returned with a large bowl filled almost to the brim with ramen. Sayaka had calmed down enough to stop crying, and glanced down to the food.

"Uh... I don't mean to be critical or anything, but why did that come from the bathroom."

Kyoko huffed. "Because the kitchen sink is too full of dirty dishes, okay? Water all tastes the same once you boil it."

"O-oh... sorry." Sayaka looked down and turned her attention to  _Mercury Project_ again.

"C'mon, read it. It's a good one," Kyoko said as she placed the bowl in the bare patch of table.

Sayaka mumbled something inaudible into the blanket.

"Huh?"

"I was just-... Do- Do they kill off Mika-chan?"

Kyoko looked momentarily surprised, but then she grinned. "Nah, she's fine. She even gets kissed towards the end."

"Really?!" Sayaka blushed just a bit under the blanket. She moved to open the book, but Kyoko blocked her with a pair of chopsticks in her hand.

"Ow! Wha-?"

"Nuh-uh. Three bites of ramen first."


End file.
